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News Archive 2012

31st December

1. A donation to Childline was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of October 2012 and from Amazon.com for September 2012. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page to earn referral fees for charity, making a total of £1,174.41 since payments started in February 2012! Further details here.

2. Pictures of Richard during New York Hobbit promotion are now in the gallery. With thanks to Jonia for the Robert Deutsch and Vera Anderson pictures.

3. The first four months of the 2013 RichardArmitageNet calendar have been created – click here. The remaining months will appear very soon. This calendar is for personal use only. Please do not upload anywhere else.

30th December

1. In this video interview on EOnline!, which took place at the New York press junket, Richard gives an excellent answer to the question of why some of the dwarves in The Hobbit don’t all look like Gimli from Lord of the Rings. “It’s such an interesting debate isn’t it, because if you think about the human face, how many faces, how many types of face do you see in the human race? How many different heights…we’re all part of the same race…”

2. Caroline, a copy editor for FAULT magazine, has posted this picture of Richard on her tumblr page. A cropped version of this picture will appear on the front of the limited edition of the next issue, which will also contain Caroline’s interview with Richard. It will be released on 15 January 2013.

1. This article appeared in the Melbourne MX newspaper on 19th December. Click to enlarge.Thanks to Sharon for the scan.

2. Richard has provided the voiceover for the latest Vauxhall Mokka advert. Watch on youtube. The voiceover starts at 34 seconds.

3. Some new comments from Richard in this article in the New Straits Times, including this quote about watching The Hobbit for a second time: “The second time, I told myself to focus on the story. And when the (giant) eagles come, my eyes were welling up because you can see their feathers fluttering in the wind and it was just beautiful. I love the fact that Peter is pushing cinema forward to get people to watch this film.” Thanks to Ana Cris.

4. Middle-earth.xenite.orgOn Peter Jackson’s “Hobbit” – Richard Armitage Defines Thorin Oakenshield. Thanks to Annie for forwarding this article, in which there is much praise for Jackson’s vision of Thorin and Richard’s portrayal: “the literary Thorin Oakenshield isn’t much of a character, much less a heroic character. Yes, he charges out to fight Bolg of the North in the Battle of Five Armies but his internal emotional struggles are not central to Tolkien’s tale. Peter Jackson and his co-writers have turned the story slightly to give Thorin his chance to shine as a pivotal character, and I think Richard Armitage was an absolutely brilliant choice to play this vibrant, active Thorin.”

5. This video interview by Bravo TV on youtube shows Richard again at the New York press junket. Thanks to Ana Cris. “When I was eleven I read The Hobbit and I didn’t really re-read it until this role came along, so I was forty when I looked at it again and it was interesting to have both my childhood memories of it and my new memories as an adult of it and try and assimilate where they would be. The important memories of what I felt when I was a child were the things that I was listening to.”

6. Two video clips for Portuguese-speaking fans as they are subtitled, although they may have been seen before: this 14 second promo showing Richard, Martin and Andy and this video interview with Richard by Collider (originally posted in the news 17th December). Thanks to Ana Cris.

7. Thank you for your enquiries about the RichardArmitageNet 2013 calendar – I hope to have it finished before 1st January!

8. StudioValerioSalvi’s interview with Richard on youtube from the UK press junket. Thanks to Karima. “I was really pleased that they’d been brave enough to use one of Tolkien’s songs…I was embracing it and looking forward to it and he also describes the sound that a dwarf makes when he sings. He calls it the deep-throated singing of the dwarves, so I knew the kind of sound that I wanted to create and I worked on the song for a few days and we found a pitch which resonated in the belly rather than the throat. I listened to a lot of Russian choral music to find a sound that was specific…I think it’s a mantra and it’s almost like a way of seducing Bilbo to come on the quest with us because we know that he’s reticent.”

3. Badtaste.it have posted an interview with Richard, which took place during the UK press junket. It is also here on youtube. Some new information in this interview about the Misty Mountains song and Fran Walsh’s involvement with that. Thanks to Ana Cris and Tania.

4. The Warner channel in Brazil will be showing a special 30 minute programme about The Hobbit at 11.00am on 24th December. The programme has already been shown and Richard does appear. It will be repeated several times over the next couple of weeks. Programme information here. Thanks to Thais.

5. Pictures of Richard at the UK Royal Premiere of The Hobbit are in the gallery. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size of each picture.

2. Huffington Post ‘The Hobbit’ Star Richard Armitage…Nearly Missed Peter Jackson’s Audition, But He Doesn’t Mind Retiring Now. This interview describes Richard’s audition in more detail, the pain he was in due to an injury sustained on the Spooks set and his love of New Zealand.

3. Empire magazine have posted this video on youtube asking the Hobbit cast and Peter Jackson for some obscure Tolkien trivia. Richard is the only one who is able to answer the question – good for him! Thanks to Patrice.

4. The new poll on the left-hand side has been requested by a visitor and is only applicable for those who attended one of the Hobbit premieres or promotional events, for example the Union Station, Toronto event or any of the TV shows. Thanks for voting! The last poll results are here.

5. Erik Kain’s review of The Hobbit on Forbes is one of the better articles about the film and his section on Thorin Oakenshield beginning “Another reason I enjoyed the film so much is the emphasis on Thorin Oakenshield…” is particularly interesting. Thanks to Angelique.

7. Anderson Live’s Hobbit episode will be shown again on Wednesday 26th December at 12.00pm ET. Thanks to Marisa.Update thanks to Jen on our Facebook page: please check your TV schedule to find out when this will be shown again.

8. Allocine.fr have posted this video interview with Richard and other cast members from the NY press junket. Thanks to Nadia.

9. Channel 9 in Australia will be showing ‘The Making of The Hobbit’ at 7.30pm on Christmas Eve (7.00pm in Adelaide – please check your TV schedules). Description: “Come behind the scenes of the first of three Hobbit movies from Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. Shot in New Zealand, this movie is sure to be a worldwide hit. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hits cinemas Boxing Day.”

2. Digital Spy interviewed Richard, Aidan Turner and James Nesbitt during the UK press junket and have published the video and article today. Spoilers about how the relationship between Bilbo and Thorin evolves if you haven’t read the book.

Richard: “I got through the Silmarillion before I went down there. I did pick and choose what I was going to look at because it’s extensive. What I love about it is, it’s Tolkien refusing to say this is fantasy, he wants legend, he wants it to feel like history. So you go there and you look for your character and you look for the roots of your race, which I did for Thorin and the dwarves…”

3. Here is an interview with Richard on the ‘green’ carpet at the UK Royal premiere of The Hobbit, interviewed by a Spanish journalist and posted on antenna3.com. Thanks to Hannah. It’s not easy to hear the English so here is a transcription:

On Thorin: “Tolkien described him as a great, legendary warrior and a very important dwarf, which worried me because I’m not very important and I’m not a dwarf, so going to New Zealand to work with Peter Jackson was certainly going to be a challenge and a transformation, which was exciting.”

On stepping back into Middle-earth: “I was a huge fan of the Rings trilogy and to go and play in Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth playground was so thrilling, and what a great cast. Half of us came from the UK, half from New Zealand and we travelled to the other side of the world and made some amazing friends.”

What was the biggest challenge on playing this role? “I think the transformation and the physical work we did to become the legendary warriors that Tolkien talked about, so yeah, it was tough.”

To Spanish fans: “I just hope you go and see the film and enjoy.”

18th December

1. There are two new videos from Roadshow Films on youtube from the Wellington press junket the day before the world premiere of The Hobbit.In this video, Richard, Martin and Andy are asked the usual questions about the film but it’s a long clip at 11 minutes and there’s some interesting new answers. This video shows Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens talking about writing the script and introducing new and old characters into the film. They talk about casting Richard and what he has brought to the role at 6 minutes in to the clip.

3. Pictures from the Apple Store Hobbit Q&A are now in the gallery with thanks to Chickadee. Video of the full event can be found below on this page.

Some information about the event from Chickadee: It was a very small seated area, only 3 rows of no more than 15 seats each, kind of like a tiny little university lecture theatre, with the small stage at the front where the cast were to be seated. In reality I was only about 4 metres away from the stage, it was that close. All the seats were filled an hour before the start and then people started forming up around the back, behind the cameras that were recording it. It wasn’t massively crowded, the crowd behind was maybe 4 people deep, just busy enough but still intimate. Richard was joined of course by Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis and Sir Ian McKellan and after talking briefly about the movie with the moderator (the Radio 2 host, Edith Bowman) they began asking questions of the audience, passing a microphone around.

I was about the 4th person to ask my question, and the first to ask one directly to Richard: “I remember reading once that you once said that you give a little bit of yourself to every character/role that you play. In the opposite effect, have you taken little bits from all of the characters/roles you have played in, as varied as they are, for your preparation and portrayal of Thorin?”

Richard responded (along the lines of…): “Yes, I have, I take different parts from every character. They all kind of mix and meld together in the whole marinade of the roles I’ve played and also in playing Thorin.One of the biggest things and issues we had with Thorin was his character and personality. Because he’s so cantankerous… I even found myself not liking him as I read the books and we wanted to bring something more out in him. And find the more likeable sides of his character and personality.”

4. A clip of an interview with four members of The Hobbit cast was played this afternoon on BBC Radio 2′s Steve Wright show. This is Richard’s clip – click to listen/download.

1. Collider interviewed Richard at the NY press junket, in which he says he’s looking forward to growing the beard again when they go back to filming the battle scene next year. “…we’ve got to finish this story. It’s the peak of Thorin’s story for me, it’s where he absolutely is redeemed so we need to go to that place and find it.”

2. De Kruitfabriek (Gunpowder Factory) on Vier.be has a video clip of interviews with the cast. Richard appears at 36m 22s. Thanks to Petra. On working with dwarves and elves and and off camera: “We can talk to elves off camera it’s just we don’t like doing that, because elves are strange beings who float around in silvery gowns and dwarves like to drink and throw food around, so we’re poles apart really.”

3. This behind the scenes of The Hobbit programme shown on Canal+ is in french of course and it’s not always easy to hear the english speaking actors over the french dubbing, but you can hear part of their interviews and for non-french speakers there are some new behind the scenes images. I’ve added behind the scenes pictures of Thorin to the Canal+ Behind the Scenes gallery. Thank you to all those who emailed about this.

4. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has had a record-breaking opening weekend at the US box office taking $84.8m, according to BBC News, and has beaten Peter Jackson’s previous best opening film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in December 2003. The film has taken £137.7m internationally in its first five days.

5. The french movie magazine Studio Ciné Livehas an interview with Richard about reading The Hobbit as a child and working with Peter Jackson. Thank you to Isabelle for the scan.

7. Saturday’s Leicester Mercury contained a three page article about Richard in their More supplement. The interview took place while Richard was promoting The Hobbit in New York at the beginning of December. Possibly one of the best reads of all the articles we have encountered throughout this Hobbit promotion, not just for the information that is shared but also in terms of tone. He answers many of the questions we’ve read before about playing Thorin Oakenshield, but the article also covers some new areas, particularly in the latter part. He refers to the global promotional tour for The Hobbit, “It’s hard work, but I’m battling away”, there is mention of North and South and Spooks and he tells us that he was in the local area when the Richard III excavation was taking place: “It was just as they were finding the Richard III bones in that car park. I’m excited to hear about the findings of this DNA, I’ve watched with interest…My father’s a historical fanatic about his character and I’ve inherited that enthusiasm, but I know by the time I get the chance I’ll be too old and too tall to play the role. I’d somehow like to realise that part of history.”

Thank you very much to Agenoria for the scans, click the thumbnails to read.

8. This picture has appeared on the USA Today website, and is associated with the interview Hobbit star finds wee bit of fame.

The video at the top of the interview page was first posted in the news 8 December below.

9. I’ve been told there are a small number (around 20) of limited edition issues of FAULT magazine left, featuring Richard on the cover. Ordering information is in the news 10 Dec.

10. The movie magazine Preview, issue #10, available for free in cinemas in the Netherlands, has included an article asking 13 questions to Richard Armitage and Graham McTavish (Dwalin). Click the image on the left to read.

11. Steve Wright will have cast members from The Hobbit on his UK Radio 2 show between 2-5pm tomorrow. Thanks to @RA_Central, who also say they’ve been told Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman will attend.

16th December

1. Today’s Herald Sun(Australia) has an interview with Richard in which he discusses his initial doubts about playing the role of Thorin Oakenshield.

Also there’s a new picture of Richard – was this from the recent Robert Ascroft photoshoot in NY perhaps? The first picture from that shoot was seen in Accion Cine news 23rd November.

Click the thumbnail to enlarge. Many thanks to Kate for the scan.

2. The T4 (channel 4 UK show) movie special is on youtube with thanks to Jennifer. 20 minutes showing red carpet footage (including quick clips of Richard), interviews with all the cast and Peter Jackson, and behind the scenes clips. The interview with Richard begins at 8m 5s. Richard’s short interview on the red carpet with an emotional confession appears at 11m 55s and again at 13m 10s naming the dwarves. There is also a cheeky suggestion at 21m 35s.

3. Clips of Richard at the UK Press Conference are on youtube thanks to RedCarpetNewsTV. Thanks Monika for sending me the link.

LOTS of news to catch up on in my two day absence. Articles that were published in the last few days are sorted by date:

Articles and interviews out today

1. An interview with Richard in GQ magazine has been published online today. As well as answering the usual questions about playing Thorin, Richard names a book he’d like to make into a film and tells us about his love of skiing, theatre and basing himself in New York.

2. Female First have named Richard Eye Candy of the Week. A lovely compliment with some pictures showing Richard from the last few outings promoting The Hobbit.

3. Empire magazine’s podcast with Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis has been published here on their site. The chat with the cast starts at 14m 10s with Andy Serkis and then Richard’s interview starts at 42m 42s. Martin’s interview is at 1hr 17m.

Richard talks about his role as an elf in the stage production of The Hobbit when he was a child, reading The Hobbit novel while filming Captain America, auditioning for the role of Thorin, the detail in the costume, finding the complexities inside of Thorin, what he thought about singing the Misty Mountains song and the production’s obsession with keeping the scripts secret. Then he talked about filming some stunts on Black Sky and what his line was in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which sadly was cut. Richard says he cannot find himself in the movie, however many fans have found him and posted pictures online. (Which reminds me that I must upload my pictures of Richard in Star Wars to the gallery…)

6. The Toronto Star have published an interview with Richard and it includes a new picture taken at Roots Canada on 3rd December – this has been added to the end of the Roots Canada gallery.

There’s an interesting comment about moving from musical theatre to acting and I’m not sure if he’s talked about it in quite this way before: “I just felt I wanted to use my voice to speak text. I love poetry, I love Shakespeare, but musical theatre just wasn’t quite enough for me. I wanted to delve a bit deeper. I was always being told, “Smile and look like you’re enjoying yourself!” And I wondered, why am I not smiling and why am I not enjoying myself? Maybe it’s because I’m not enjoying myself! But I must say that for The Hobbit, I’ve actually called upon something from every job I’ve ever done, even the singing. You can’t reject anything in your life as an artist. Everything has its use.”

7. Watch Richard on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight on the show’s website. A ten minute interview in which he talks about playing Thorin of course, but there is a clip of Richard speaking Maori at the Powhiri ceremony on the first day of shooting, which he used later for voice work, and a fan video which caused some embarrassment!

8. Alison Hammond of ITV’s This Morning is known for making her interviewees laugh and Richard is no exception. A clip from yesterday’s show with many of the cast and Peter Jackson has been uploaded to youtube by danielsredluna. Richard appears at 50 seconds and 6m 5s.

9. Hollywood.com have published an interview with Richard entitled ‘The Hobbit’ Star Richard Armitage on Becoming a Dwarf and What We’ll See in Part 2. “It was in an early draft that Thorin felt like he didn’t want to bring Fili and Kili along on this quest,” Armitage says. “He knows the horror that is in that mountain. Leading your own kin to that place… it’s such a big thing to do.” Luckily, the idea wasn’t completely scrapped, but rather infused into the next installment, The Hobbit: A Desolation of Smaug. “Actually, in the film too, they explore the breakdown of that idea. That Thorin doesn’t want to continue with his nephews.”

10. FAULT magazine have released a preview shot of Richard from their next issue with an introduction here on their site. There are still a few copies left of the limited edition cover featuring Richard. Ordering information is in the news 10 Dec.

Click the picture to enlarge.

11. Peter Jackson has posted his tenth video blog on his facebook page today. It shows the build-up to the premiere and all the work that was involved in such a large scale event, and also the press event at Wellington airport, the press conference in Wellington on the day of the world premiere and scenes from the red carpet.

12. The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat has an interview with many of the Hobbit cast on its website taken during the UK press junket and it is worth watching through to the ending – Richard appears throughout and also sings! Thanks to Linnea.

13. Entertainment.ie – another new video interview with Richard during the UK press junket. Richard talks about dreaming of tunnels inside the Lonely Mountain, the cameraderie between the dwarves and feeling like he’d missed out on the party in Bag End, although all the dwarves did partake in an improvised night in the woods as a bonding exercise as part of the Boot Camp. Richard reveals a spoiler about the ending of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey n the last question at 3m 40s.

Press articles published Thursday 13th December

1. The Boston HeraldRichard Armitage embarks on ‘Journey’ to stardom. Flattering comments by Philippa Boyens and quotes from Richard: ‘Armitage understood “where they were going to take Thorin in terms of the emotional as well as a physical journey. I knew they wanted someone that could be quite fierce on the battlefield.”’

2. This video showing the Portuguese journalist Mário Augusto on The Hobbit set is obviously in Portuguese but the actors’ interviews are subtitled. Richard appears at 6m 40s talking about the adventure of filming in New Zealand and Richard is mentioned by Adam Brown, Aidan Turner and Dean O’Gorman at 17 minutes. Thanks to T.C.

1. The New YorkerRing Cycle. Peter Jackson returns to Middle-earth with an excellent review of Richard’s performance: “No less welcome is Richard Armitage, scarcely known here, although he has throbbed hearts on a regular basis on British TV; he now pulls off the task, deemed impossible by every expert on Middle-Earth, of making a dwarf seductive. To be honest, the dwarves come across as a jumble of Brueghel faces, lit with grins, scrunched by scowls, and fronted by bulbous conks; only Armitage, as Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the pack, earns consistent dramatic attention, and he brings the rumpus of the early scenes to a beautiful halt as he pauses to croon, in a yearning baritone, an anthem of dwarf-desire”

2. This interview with Richard on youtube by MonsieurHollywood.com includes some new and interesting responses to playing a role that looks and behaves nothing like himself. “I like to leave most of myself outside the door…”

3. Video from the Q&A that took place at the Apple Store in Regent Street, London on Monday evening has been published on youtube, with thanks to melodygreenleaf1. This is the entire Q&A and Richard answers one of the questions – in part 2 only – but watch both parts if you can as it’s a light-hearted Q&A with great answers from the four members of the cast. Part 1 and part 2.

4. Bonnie Laufer of Tribute.ca interviewed Richard during the press junket in New York. “Both Peter and Andy when it came to the physical work, would allow me to do most of the stunts myself, which was great for me and it’s not about any kind of bravado it was because when you do all of the stunts it gets you closer to the character you feel like you really are playing the character. I hated handing it over to somebody else.” Richard names James Stewart and Gary Oldman as actors who have inspired him.

5. The Telegraph interviewed Richard during the UK press junket: “…and then the big phone call, which is the one you wait for, well, your entire career, when your agent says you’re Peter Jackson’s first choice to play Thorin Oakenshield…it’s a pretty good day in an actor’s life.”

6. Yahoo Movies have a video clip with all the cast, Peter Jackson and Joe Letteri, Visual Effects Supervisor. Richard only appears for a few seconds, but there are interesting comments from all the interviewees. Richard: “I think we’re all a little bit mad in this business. You have to be a bit crazy to work like this.”

7. MovielineRichard Armitage Talks ‘Hobbit’ And Thorin Oakenshield And Takes A Phone Call From Sauron. Note there are 2 pages to this interview. Funny joke by Richard at the end of page 1 and he talks about future events in the trilogy: “I think that Thror hid himself away when he got the dragon sickness, and Thorin kind of kept him behind closed doors and would nurse him through his sickness. Kept the door closed so no one ever saw the king. I think he witnessed the physical effects of that. So when we get into film III, you’ll see the manifestation of what that is.”

11th December

1. Richard will appear on Canada AM this morning, in an interview that was recorded when he visited Toronto on the 3rd. Thanks to @KitKatCDN on twitter.

Here is video showing Richard from this morning’s show: Canada AM Video interesting not least because he’s looking directly at the camera to answer the questions!

2. This excellent interview by Rifflo aka @HobbitSteve on twitter was his first one-to-one interview and he was lucky enough to interview Richard. He talks of meeting concept artists Alan Lee and John Howe: “Both of them—John and Alan—Are just incredible. You look at their work, and it bowls you over…They’re one of the reasons why I was able to take the role…It’s John’s sketch of Thorin, then, and he’s got his hands crossed. That’s what convinced me I could play the role.” We can see which drawing Richard was referring to, as Rifflo has included a picture of the sketch is in the report.

3. @mizukawaseiwa on twitter has forwarded a link to her interview with Martin and Richard, which took place in Japan. Both are asked whether they are more of a Baggins (stay at home type) or a Took (adventurer). Richard: “Am I a Baggins or a Took? Well, I’m a dwarf. As a person am I? Well, I don’t have children so I think I’m about 60% Took, I like extreme change, and I don’t think twice about it. I am fearful for my life, and I don’t like conflict. But in terms of something radical which changes my life, I think I’m quite brave in that respect.

4. This interview with Richard on NY Daily News is new today, but it took place two days before the Wellington premiere. Richard is described as having “leading-man looks and a stage pedigree, “The Hobbit” trilogy could do for Armitage’s career what “300” did for Gerard Butler’s.” Also there’s an interesting comment from Peter Jackson about Richard: “It’s strange, because in real life he’s so quiet, and he’s very unassuming and shy, and yet you put him in those boots and that coat and give him a sword, and he immediately assumes an incredible authority,” said Jackson. “He always walked like Thorin on set, and when he’s Richard, he walks in a completely different way.”

5. This new video interview on Trailer Addict shows Richard explaining how he came to terms with taking on such a well-known role as Thorin and about how much focus was required. He also names James Stewart and Gary Oldman as actors who have inspired him.

6. FAULT magazine say there are still a few copies of the Richard Armitage cover limited edition if you would like to pre-order your discounted copy. See the box in yesterday’s news for details.

7. Watch the UK premiere of The Hobbit live on Yahoo Movies. Coverage starts at 5.15pm (GMT). Or watch it live on youtube, also from 5.15pm (GMT) – introduced by Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis. World clock here.

8. Sky1 (UK) will broadcast a Hobbit Premiere Special programme this Saturday at 12.30pm.

3. Another interview has appeared on several online sites so must have part of another ’round table’ interview with the press. This link is to movies.inquirer.net. Some new quotes including Richard’s thoughts about the translation of Thorin and his father’s names: “Interestingly…the translation of Thráin is ‘yearner’ and Thorin is ‘darer.’ Thráin is the one that yearned for it, but wouldn’t achieve it. Thorin is the one that would dare to do it.”

The article also quotes Peter Jackson on Richard: “Thorin is the leader of this band of Dwarves, and we needed someone who inherently had that strength and authority…And those qualities are very much reflected in the way Richard completely owns the character of Thorin. He’s the most wonderfully quiet person in real life, and yet when he steps into the boots of Thorin Oakenshield, he totally takes control of that group.”

4. Thanks to Hannah, here’s a link to watch the live UK premiere of The Hobbit, in Spanish. There will also be interviews with the actors including Richard.

5. Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis and Sir Ian McKellen will be in the Apple Store, Regent St, London doing a Q&A at 5.30pm this evening. Radio 1 DJ Edith Bowman will also be there. Video now in the news 14 Dec.

6. Digital Spy (UK) have a short article entitled ‘Hobbit’ Richard Armitage: ‘I relate to Thorin’ with an interesting quote about seeing sketches of the character. “It took me a while to be convinced that I could do it, it wasn’t until I saw some sketches, this one particular pencil sketch… there was something about this character’s eyes and the way that his hands are crossed, I thought, ‘I think I can do this, I can pull this off’.”

7. An article on UPI.com, written after the New York Hobbit press conference, includes quotes from Richard and Martin about how the costumes and make-up helped their transformations into non-human characters. “The first time I was ever created into a dwarf, it was quite shocking. I remember they did like a time-lapse photography of the process and it took something in the region of 4 1/2 hours…I actually kept my eyes shut because I didn’t want to see how it worked and just opened my eyes at the end. It’s very strange when you don’t recognize yourself.”

1. Greendragon from TheOneRing.net has posted the second part of her interview with Richard while he was in Toronto. This is part of a ’round table’ interview with other journalists present, so the answers will be familiar if you have read other articles posted here recently, but Greendragon’s version of events reads like a transcription rather than an edited interpretation so it makes interesting reading.

2. Two new promos were released by Warner Bros. India on youtube a few days ago, both showing new shots of Thorin Oakenshield: Trailer 1 and Trailer 2.

5. The 13 minute behind the scenes video of The Hobbit mentioned in the news 6 December is now here on youtube.

6. Richard appeared on InnerSPACE, a show on CTV based in Toronto and a video has been generously shared by a Canadian fan. Watch on youtube.

7. News about FAULT magazine issue 13. The magazine is now available to pre-order, however a discount code will be given to me tomorrow and the first 100 people to order the issue via RichardArmitageNet and who enter a voucher code will receive the issue at a discounted price. Note the regular issue has Billy Bob Thornton on the cover. There are limited editions with Richard on the cover, but there were only 200 copies printed. Details tomorrow as soon as I receive the voucher code information. Original details about the issue were posted in the news 19 October.

4. Latest Hobbit trailer, TV Spot #11, is now on youtube or on The Hobbit facebook page. There is also a new Hobbit featurette on youtube: the Making of Middle-earth describing how the spectacular scenery of New Zealand was used in the film, with soundbites from most of the cast. Richard: “We saw so many incredible places. It didn’t feel like work.”

5. A new video – Five Questions for the Hobbit’s Richard Armitage – on the USA Today site.

7th December

1. Glamour magazine (UK) January 2013 issue has an interview with Richard Armitage about his role as Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit. Some visitors may recognise the references to specific fan videos!

The iPad version includes a video showing behind the scenes of the photo shoot with an additional short interview with Richard. Scans of the iPad interview and some screenshots of the video are in the Glamour magazine gallery.

The interview in the print edition of the magazine is exactly the same as the iPad interview shown in image numbers 1-4 in the gallery.

2. Empire magazine are publishing extra interviews with all the dwarves in the run-up to the film’s release next week. No Thorin yet but stay tuned!

3. Ann Curry’s interview with the Hobbit cast was shown earlier on the TODAY show in the US and is now available to watch online. This is a very funny interview with Richard, Hugo Weaving (Elrond), Andy Serkis (Gollum), Martin Freeman (Bilbo) and Elijah Wood (Frodo), and it took place at Zealandia near Wellington, on 26 November. See news 26 Nov and 27 Nov for a picture and reports from Zealandia.

4. Here is another new video interview with Richard, this one by Scott Orlin, reporter for Cinema.de. The interview took place in New York and the video is available here on their site.

5. Pictures of Richard at the New York Hobbit premiere, which took place at the Ziegfeld theatre last night, are in the gallery. Click a picture to view, then click ‘original image’ for full size.

6. In this interview on the Monsters and Critics site, Anne Brodie asked Richard about leaving Spooks/MI-5 and playing Thorin. “I decided to leave the show, to go to nothing. I had done three series and was facing a fourth, I thought ‘You know what, if I stay I’ll be too comfortable’… I have always said of myself I look better in the dark or dirty and I think it’s true. It’s not about looking. It’s the atmosphere that creates. I think I’ve just got a face that suits half shadow rather than full daylight.” Anne Brodie interviewed Richard in Toronto and tweeted a picture after the interview (from the news below 3rd December item #6.

7. Hobbit cast interviews will appear on NBC’s Access Hollywood tonight in the US at 7.30pm (EST) in some areas. Please check your local TV schedule for broadcast times. Thanks to Marisa.

8. @TheHobbitMove on twitter have just posted a picture showing Richard signing autographs earlier today in New York. Click the picture to enlarge.

9. LeslieG met Richard at Union Station in Toronto on 3rd December and is happy to share this picture of herself with Richard with us all. She also appears in the video posted in the news 6th Dec #3.

Click the picture to enlarge.

10. BeyondTheTrailer’s video on youtube at the NY Premiere last night, shows interviews with many of the cast and also co-screenwriter Philippa Boyens. Richard isn’t in the video but Jed Brophy (Nori) is extremely complimentary about their dwarf leader Thorin at 3m 30s. Thanks @Alltomiron on twitter.

11. If you’re in the US, watch out for Hobbit specials on Inside Edition and Hollywood Dailies (Reelz channel) very soon. Thanks to @KristiPoquette on twitter and Marisa.

12. The interview with Richard on George Stroumboulopoulos’s TV show, which was recorded on the 3rd Dec in Toronto, will air on Wednesday 12th December, despite previously being told it would be Thursday. Click ‘Wednesday’ on the Strombo site for more info. Thanks to Jocelyn.

13. Yesterday an extract of Richard Armitage’s interview with Barbara Chai from the Wall Street Journal appeared on youtube, now more of that interview has been posted on youtube.

6th December

1. Greendragon from TheOneRing.net interviewed Richard while he was in Toronto. Her interview together with a picture (click to enlarge) can be found here.

“Balin and Dwalin and himself are the only people who really know what’s in that mountain, yet he’s got these kind of shiny faced dwarves all sitting around the table thinking about this gold, and in the back of his mind he’s thinking, ‘You have no idea what you’ll be facing – we’ve seen it – but you’re still going to come with me…’ That’s a really tough thing to ask…”

2. The ITV Breakfast show (UK), Daybreak, have announced that every day next week they will show features on The Hobbit and the stars of the film. The UK premiere is on Wednesday 12th December so all the actors will be in the UK next week. Thanks to Debbie.

3. This video by Warner Bros. Toronto shows how The Hobbit has taken over Union Station, Toronto and there are clips of Richard Armitage plus dramatic music! Watch on youtube.

4. Update: A 13 minute behind the scenes video of The Hobbit is here on youtube. Plenty of spoilers here, new clips from the films and most of the actors adding commentary. Here are a few screencaps of Richard behind the scenes – no spoilers:

5. The US Premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey takes place at the Ziegfeld theatre in New York this evening. Red carpet arrivals are due to start at 6pm according to @TheHobbitMovie.

6. An extract of Richard’s interview with the Wall Street Journal has been published on youtube. The full interview will be uploaded to youtube tomorrow. Barbara Chai the interviewer tweeted the link to her article here, to introduce the special preview clip.

7. A donation to Barnardo’s was made today, with many thanks to those who used the Amazon links on the home page of this site when shopping. Your Christmas shopping at Amazon will earn referral fees for charity if you visit Amazon UK or US via this site first, at no cost to yourself. Thank you! Details here.

8. This new interview by City TV took place outside the Scotiabank theatre where the Toronto premiere of The Hobbit took place later that day. Watch on youtube.

5th December

1. New interview with Richard on Flicks and Bits: “I kind of wrote a story for Thorin, about the experiences he’d had as a young man, where he came from and the experiences he’d had at Erebor…That back-story helped immensely. That burden was something I had to really focus on, latch onto.”

2. Entertainment Tonight has put up a video on youtube showing interviews with Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage. This interview was part of the press junket, which took place the day before the Wellington premiere.

3. More reviews of The Hobbit with specific mention of Richard:

Total Film ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ “there’s an Aragorn-y vibe to Richard Armitage’s Thorin, the leader of the pack who brings brooding focus to the simple but emotive theme of wanting to find a home”

4. A Hobbit press conference is taking place in NYC today. In attendance are Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Sir Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage. @filmdotcom are tweeting some interesting comments such as this and this comment although I do not know what sparked the remark from Ian.

1. Six new clips from The Hobbit on this youtube channel, with spoilers aplenty. New shots of Thorin and extra parts to scenes you may have seen before. Not for those who want to avoid any more clips or spoilers before the film is released.

2. The clips mentioned above, interviews with all the main cast AND behind the scenes footage are available on traileraddict.com. Heirs of Durin has a summary and links to all. So many spoilers – be warned.

This interview with Richard on Trailer Addict looks to me like a clip from The Hobbit DVD Extras and I wonder if all the behind the scenes clips will indeed appear on the DVD special features one day. Richard tells us Thorin’s history, Thorin’s impression of Bilbo and his conflicting relationship with Gandalf, his confidence in Peter Jackson who Richard believes knows the character of Thorin better than he does and finally, in a clip obviously taken some weeks later, Richard tells us that Thorin’s seriousness is due to his desperate need to reclaim Erebor and that he feels this is his last chance to do so.

3. Globalnews.ca shows a new picture taken yesterday and asks Richard about his opinions of 48 frames per second: “Personally, my taste is I want to see this film in both formats because I’m a bit old fashioned and I also like that veil in front of the lens… You can’t quite believe what you’re looking at and it’s something we don’t recognize, it’s like a new flavour you’re trying to taste and I find it fascinating.”

Press Reviews of The Hobbit released today

4. The embargo on press reviews of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been lifted and there are some notable comments made about Richard’s performance in the film. Spoiler warning in these reviews!

I won’t post links to all reviews as there will be 10s if not 100s over the next few days, but here are a few examples demonstrating the positive reaction to Richard’s performance – it’s worth noting I haven’t found any negative reactions yet!

News.com.au ‘Neala Johnson’s review of The Hobbit‘ includes the sub-heading ‘Oscar buzz over Richard Armitage’s Thorin Oakenshield?’ “Thorin’s hero back-story is marvellously fleshed out. Little wonder there’s already major buzz around Armitage – his Thorin is to The Hobbit what Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn was to The Lord of the Rings.”

TheOneRing.net ‘Staffer Garfemaio reviews ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ “Richard Armitage as Thorin and Ken Stott as Balin, in particular, shine in their respective roles. You will feel you are in the presence of a King without a Throne.”

TheOneRing.net ‘McCere reviews ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ “It’s a role likely to launch Armitage, blessed with an already-fervent fanbase, masculine good looks, and ample ability, into the stratosphere. The character is deeply scarred and tragic. Thorin gives the children’s tale a Shakespearean disaster angle and the film makes the most of it in in ways that may not surprise viewers but will nevertheless delight them.”

“TVNZ OneNews ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Movie Review’ “Of the dwarves, Ken Stott’s venerable turn as Balin impresses, whereas the others tend to go more for comedy – with the exception of brooding totty dwarf Thorin Oakenshield (played by the dashing Richard Armitage). He has the potential to spin off as a sex symbol in the way that Legolas did in the following trilogy and he certainly gets moments to look moody and intense as the wronged Dwarven heir to Erebor.”

Screendaily.com ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ “Of the new faces, the other to leave an impression is Armitage, wholly authoritative as the stoic, haunted Thorin who longs to avenge his slain father king…Armitage’s fierce glances are enough to create an imposing, if somewhat one-dimensional warrior.”

The Hollywood Reporter ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Review’ “The dwarves are pretty interchangeable, but Armitage has a strong bearing as the royal heir and doesn’t stress the character’s self-important pomposity too much.”

Slashfilm.com ‘Peter Jackson’s Latest is Rousing Yet Repetitive’ “Similar to Viggo Mortensen in Lord of the Rings, Armitage is a long-time character actor who achieves leading man status with this role. In fact, his character is so dynamic and awesome, Jackson and crew have created a totally unique foe for him to battle throughout the movie.”

Collider.com ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Review’ ” Armitage is positively heroic in the role and Jackson gives him plenty of camera time to shine…Armitage brings gravitas and solemnity to the role of Thorin, especially when surrounded by the clownish Dwarves in his company.”

5. Richard attended the Toronto premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey yesterday evening and met fans outside the Scotiabank theatre before pictures of him were taken on the red carpet.

@dani_f asked him to sign an autograph and has allowed me to post her picture with Richard to share with you all.

Click the pic to enlarge. Lovely pic – thanks Dani!

6. The Radio Times 15-21 Dec issue, out today for subscribers in the UK, has six pages on The Hobbit. It includes interviews with Martin Freeman, Aidan Turner and Andy Serkis and short paragraphs on seven other actors including Richard. I will try to get a copy in the next couple of days and will scan if there is anything worth posting here. Thanks to JH for the info.

7. Channel 4 (UK) will show a special programme called ‘The Hobbit, T4 Movie Special – Behind the Scenes of Peter Jackson’s Film’ on Saturday 15th December 9.10am. Thanks to JH.

8. This new interview by Twitch Film is well-worth reading because of the different answers Richard gives to questions he has been asked before about working on The Hobbit. “Whenever I play characters that are a bit grubby and grungy it just feels better. Maybe it’s because I’m a Northerner, and I’m just meant to have my hands dirty. Part of the thrill of playing Thorin was this transformation.” He also makes some generous remarks about working with Sir Ian McKellen, Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis.

Tweets and pictures from Warner Bros. Canada: here showing Richard at Union Station and again here.

More news via twitter, with thanks to @kitkatcdn: coverage of the Union Station event will be shown on “Innerspace” on the Space Channel tonight at 6.00pm (EST). Also Etalk (an entertainment show) is listing interviews for The Hobbit on CTV at various times throughout the day.

NEW -‘headcam’ interview in Union Station by Kiss 92.5 radio presenter Damnit Maurie. Richard’s tells us that he was given several gifts from The Hobbit: Orcrist, the Oakenshield, his map to Erebor and Thorin’s key AND a little Thorin lego minifigure!

The Marilyn Denis show was recorded at 10.00am today and is now available to watch online here or you can watch the clip I have uploaded to youtube.

@sajak551 on twitter has provided a live update of Richard’s interview and tweeted this collage of pictures. Richard was asked questions about how he was made to look like a dwarf, his experiences in dwarf camp, what the NZ World Premiere was like, what he thinks of his fans the Armitage Army AND they showed a new clip from The Hobbit showing the attack of the wargs.

Here’s some screencaps, click to enlarge:

6. Richard has been interviewed by the press at the Roots Canada shop in Toronto this afternoon. Picture from @RootsCanada here.

7. 680 News radio interview – download mp3 here. Richard talks once again about his Hobbit stage role as an elf as a child inBirmingham UK, how a green screen was not as distracting as he thought it might be, what it was like to work with Sir Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman and what The Hobbit novel means to him.

9. The Hobbit premiere in Toronto will take place at the Scotiabank theatre tonight at 6.30pm, thanks to @cayenne9T1.

2nd December

1. Sir Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and Andy Serkis will be appearing on Anderson Live on 4th December and you can apply for free tickets, according to TheOneRing.net. (Update: free tickets are no longer available, according to a comment left on my home page.) The Anderson Live Facebook page is asking for questions for the cast here and they also tweeted the request if you prefer to pose your questions via twitter. (I replied to let them know that’s my twitter account and that Richard is not on twitter!)

2. Warner Bros. Canada are also appealing for questions for Richard when he visits Toronto on 3rd December. Post your questions here.

1st December

1. Japanese Premiere: press conference and red carpet event.

Peter Jackson, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and Elijah Wood attended the Japanese premiere press conference earlier today in Tokyo and RichardArmitageCentralcaptured the whole thing in great quality and uploaded to youtube. There were some extremely complimentary remarks made about Richard as an actor and a person by Peter and Martin, particularly in part 4.

Peter on Richard: “I look on the characters of Bilbo and Thorin as the heart and soul of the story really. Iif Bilbo is the heart then Thorin is the soul. Richard…we auditioned the role, saw many, many actors and Richard really managed to capture for us the very important sense of nobility, because he is essentially playing a king, but also the conflict as to whether or not he has the ability to lead these dwarves on this very difficult quest, a small number to fight a dragon, to reclaim a homeland, that’s a very noble thing that he’s trying to do and yet he doesn’t really have the resources, if you like, to do this. And also with the character, there’s a sense of honour that Richard…a sort of quiet honour that Richard carries, which I think is absolutely superb and as an actor Richard is one of those very rare actors in which he uses stillness and he uses quiet to draw your eye. There can be a lot of things happening on the screen, there can be many characters on the screen, and yet Thorin in his stillness draws your attention. It’s a very, very rare skill…he’s somebody when he’s on screen that your eyes go to, that you want to watch.”

Martin on Richard: “It was very easy, actually, working with Richard. He is …what Pete said actually about what he brings to Thorin is partly what he brings just as a person, which is, he has quiet determination, he respects himself and others and he respects other’s way of working but he holds on to this very strong core of himself actually, he’s about the least arrogant person you could wish to meet, he’s very self-deprecating and he’s always up for… I don’t know, he’s just up for what you’re going to bring to the scene. I remember I went to the gym with him once, and there were a few of us there and we had to do these circuits around the gym with this insane psychopath of a gym trainer, and I was busy dying about half way round, and I nearly did pass out, I genuinely nearly…it was only a sports drink that stopped me from falling on the floor. I looked over and Richard had quietly completed the entire circuit, sort of slightly breaking a sweat and he sort of admitted that he was…you know, he found it hard and he was finding (feeling) tired, but what I really admired about that was that he wasn’t being macho and he wasn’t being butch, but he just quietly got on with it and that’s kind of how he treated the 18 months of the job really. You know, all the trials and tributions that inevitably come with just the day to day making of a film, it’s tiring, you miss home, etc. He was very stoical about it, which again is a great thing for Thorin. So I think there was a good marriage of Richard and Thorin there and yeah I enjoyed working with him very much. What I always think about Richard is he is essentially a decent person, and I can offer no higher praise to someone, I think he’s a good human being and I like being around them.”

Here’s a fantastic picture of Richard and Martin posted by @Ievrem on twitter. Scroll down for four more pictures from the stage at the Japanese Premiere.

In the evening, the cast and Peter Jackson attended the Japanese Premiere at TOHO Cinemas in Tokyo, signing autographs for fans and being interviewed by the press. JasRangoon has captured Richard Armitage’s red carpet interview and the parts of the live streaming feed showing Richard signing autographs for fans. Watch on youtube here.

At the end of the event, the Hobbit stars appeared on stage and each of them spoke to the crowd. The whole event on stage has been recorded and uploaded to the RichardArmitageNet channel on youtube, part 1 here (part 2 will start automatically). This was recorded from live streaming, hence the sound is sometimes out of sync with the picture, apologies for that.

Pictures of Richard at the premiere and press conference are now in the Japanese Premiere gallery– nine more pictures just added.

1. More Hobbit promotion in Toronto: a visitor to this site, Esther, has received confirmation that Richard will be interviewed on the Marilyn Denis show on 3rd December (the same day as other Toronto appearances, see the Hobbit Promotion 2012 page). The show is taped live at 10.00am in Toronto and live streaming video will be shown on the show’s website.

2. Warner Bros. Canada Hobbit screening competition: you could win tickets to an advance screening of The Hobbit, in one of several Canadian cities on 12th December, by entering a competition on the WB Canada Facebook page. The competition closes on 3rd December. Thanks to a Canadian friend for the info.

3. Video footage from the ARIA Awards:

thanks to Bccmee for posting the clip on the ARIA Awards stage on youtube.

a brief clip of Richard, Martin and Andy speaking to an interviewer on the ‘black’ carpet at 2m32s on this msn site.

4. New interview with Richard on a Swiss site: in an interview on the Swiss site OutNow.ch, Richard says that The Hobbit is not a children’s film, that the Hobbit trilogy has much to live up to because of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that Thorin plays the harp and what it was like working with Ian McKellen and Cate Blanchett. Many thanks to Servetus for this translation into English.

5. Extract from FAULT magazine: a small extract from the interview with Richard Armitage by FAULT magazine has been posted on the interviewer’s tumblr page. The issue will be available in early January 2013.

29th November

1. ARIA Awards update: first pictures from @speedmouse on twitter who had a fantastic seat close to the stage and took this picture and this one. With many thanks to her for letting me share on the site.

2. Audio and Video interviews with Richard Armitage and the cast in New Zealand

Audio of Richard from the Wellington red carpet is here, in which Richard successfully avoids answering the question thanks to his modesty.

In this interview on youtube, Richard says at the end that he would love to play Richard III. The original source of that clip was this video on OneNews. Thanks to rbb.

A video clip here on 3News: ‘A sit down with Bilbo, Gollum and Thorin’ with Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage. Richard talks about how he felt when he first watched the film on Sunday, the fact that Thorin was a character with ‘big shoes to fill’ and what an amazing experience filming The Hobbit has been.

4. The Today Show in the US will be showing an interview by Ann Curry with the cast of The Hobbit on Friday 7th December, the exact time is unconfirmed. Also an interview with Peter Jackson will be shown on Rock Center next Thursday 6th December at 10.00pm EST. Thanks to Kate.

6. More news about Richard’s visit to Toronto: on Monday 3rd December, Richard will appear at Union Station at 7.00am where an installation for the film will be unveiled. KISS radio will be there to hand out 100 passes to attend the premiere that night! More information on this celebrity site. Anyone going? Please email me as we would all love to see your pictures!

A press conference with Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens and many of the cast took place at 11.00am on Wednesday 28 November. Here are some video clips and reports:

New Zealand Herald – a 12.5 minute video showing the beginning of the press conference. Richard doesn’t get to answer any questions in this clip, but lots of interesting answers by Peter Jackson, Cate Blanchett and Martin Freeman and a bit of Barry Humphries too.

link on Stuff.co.nz. Peter Jackson talks about the comedy in The Hobbit. Some nice shots of Richard in this video.

Pictures from the Hobbit Press Conference are in the gallery. Thanks to Cesta for some of these.

3. The World Premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey red carpet event in Wellington, NZ.

Cast and crew from The Hobbit walked the red carpet in Wellington today, meeting and greeting fans for around two hours. All the main cast members attended except Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and Ken Stott (Balin).

First two interviews with Richard from the red carpet in Wellington, courtesy of RACentral on youtube.

Pictures from the Wellington Premiere: a new gallery has been created – the Wellington Premiere gallery – with images from press sites posted on the internet in the last few days. With thanks to Cesta for her help. This picture from Glamour magazine UK’s site is included in the gallery – note the option to vote!

Final speeches at the end of the ceremony on youtube: the Mayor of Wellington, representatives from Warner Bros. and Peter Jackson gave speeches at the end of the red carpet event on a specially-constructed stage, which resembled Bilbo’s hobbit-hole Bag End. Peter introduced all the actors playing dwarves on stage, who all entered via the hobbit-hole’s door. I’ve uploaded the entire stage event on to youtube.

1. The remaining cast members of The Hobbit including Aidan Turner, Graham McTavish and Sylvester McCoy arrived in Wellington today and were greeted by Peter Jackson, Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman and other cast members for a press call at Wellington airport with the ‘Hobbit aircraft’.

2. 3news.co.nz interviewed Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage today. Here is the video in which Richard states that his life has already changed even though the film has not yet been released.

3. Following the release of yesterday’s picture showing Richard and other Hobbit cast members at Zealandia, news reports have now appeared on Zealandia’s site and the Dominion Post. The cast were there to film an interview with American media. I understand there is an embargo on US interviews until 1st December.

4. Peter Jackson revealed in a radio interview on RadioNZ on Tuesday morning’s ‘Morning Report’ that there will be another 10-12 weeks of filming in the middle of next year to complete the Hobbit trilogy. He also revealed that The Hobbit was very nearly shot in Britain (a point which has been taken up by some media).

5. Channel 7 (Australia) interviewed Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis today. You can watch the interview on youtube. The aspect ratio is all wrong but it’s a nice interview, full of good humour.

6. Warner Bros. Canada Facebook page have announced that Richard Armitage will be attending the premiere screening of The Hobbit on 3rd December in Toronto. I’m afraid the competition on that page has already closed. Richard is due to be interviewed in Toronto on the same day – details in the news 21st November below.

7. According to this report on Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis will attend the 26th Aria Awards in Sydney on the 28th November!

26th November

1. Richard visited Zealandia today, a wildlife sanctuary situated near Wellington, NZ with other stars from The Hobbit. They tweeted a picture of the group and it now features as today’s picture of the day.

2. The Hobbit Movie facebook page will be streaming live video from the red carpet in Wellington on Tuesday 27th/Wednesday 28th November from the following times:

6.50pm Pacific US time / 9.50pm Eastern US time (Tuesday evening) 2.50am UK time / 3.50pm NZ time (Wednesday)

3. A couple of notes from Ali:

Thanks for all the emails I’ve received regarding the pictures at Wellington airport, you are all great at helping me keep this site up-to-date! I’m afraid I won’t be posting those particular pictures on this site as they are paparazzi pictures taken without RA’s knowledge, however they have been posted in some sections of the press and are not difficult to find on the internet. Thanks.

Secondly, if you are thinking of sending a Christmas present to Richard may I suggest a donation to one of the four JustGiving charities instead? A fan initiative has started on two of the pages already (see the Childline and Barnardo’s pages). Thanks to Servetus and Judiang.

4. Air New Zealand Germany is running a competition on Facebook to win two tickets for the UK Premiere of The Hobbit in London. The participants must be German citizens and over 18 years old. Closing date 29th November. Thanks to Sarah.

5. The premiere of The Hobbit in Paris (no cast and crew I’m afraid) will be on Monday 10th December, 8.30pm at Le Grand Rex theatre. The original version will be shown with french subtitles. Tickets are now available. Thanks to Joane.

6. A donation to Shelter was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.com for the month of August 2012. That’s now over £1000 raised so THANK YOU for using the Amazon links on the home page and earning referral fees for charity. Further details here.

8. Here’s a competition to win 2 tickets to the UK premiere of The Hobbit at Bluffers.com. Open to UK residents only, aged 18 and over. Closing date 5 Dec 2012.

25th November

1. Saturday’s Daily Mirror had an article about the Brits in The Hobbit to see if readers could identify the stars familiar to a UK audience. Click below to read. Thanks to Jen for the scan.

2. A full translation of the interview with Richard in L’Écran Fantastique can be found in yesterday’s news below, and also a translation of the Spanish interview in AccionCine magazine is in the news 23 November. Superb interviews in which Richard describes his experiences playing Thorin Oakenshield at length. Well worth a read.

2. Rolling Stone’s Hobbit Collector’s edition is now in stores (as mentioned below, news 21 November) and scans featuring Thorin Oakenshield are below. Many thanks to Janine and ddhockey for the scans.

3. The french movie magazine, L’Écran Fantastique has published an interesting and insightful interview with Richard about playing Thorin Oakenshield. Scans below are generously provided by Joane. Finished translation courtesy of Lexie171170 is here (press F5 to refresh the PDF if you can’t see the latest update).

4. Four more jigsaws have been added to the site, and I’ve created a second page as there are quite a few puzzles now. Click here to see the new jigsaws. There is a link to go to the previous jigsaws page (page 1) at the top.

2. A new picture of Richard from a recent photoshoot in New York by Robert Ascroft has appeared in the December issue of Accion Cine, a Spanish movie magazine. Scroll down this pageto see the picture and other scans from the magazine featuring stars of The Hobbit, or click the image on the left.

The interviewer, Jesús Usero, is on twitter and has been answering a lot of tweets about the interview today, including this one. Scroll down his twitter feed for more responses. You do not need to be a member of twitter to read the tweets.

Postage to the UK is 1.5 Euros, that’s a total of approximately UK £7.00.

For a larger, higher quality image of the new picture by Robert Ascroft, click here:

3. Air New Zealand have revealed the artwork created by Weta Workshop that decorates their Boeing 777-300ER (see this image on Weta’s Facebook page). According to the report on TVNZ it is the largest ever graphic to have been applied to an aircraft. It is due to depart for London via Los Angeles and then returning to Wellington, quote “to play a starring role in the global premiere of the first instalment of The Hobbit trilogy in Wellington on November 28.” We will have to wait and see what that role will entail.

1. A new interview with Richard by Tom Cardy has been posted on the Dominion Post’s website. Richard describes his audition for Thorin and his determination to play the part despite the delays in getting the movie off the ground. Then he describes feeling immediately at home in New Zealand, what the Hobbit boot camp was like and how the character of Thorin develops across the three movies.

2. The organisers of RingCon, a Hobbit convention to be held in Germany in March next year, are asking on their Facebook page whether you would like to see Richard Armitage or Martin Freeman at the convention. Vote away!

3. All the news reported so far about the four Hobbit premieres has been posted on this page. Reports, photos and videos will appear on that page after each event.

21st November

1. Richard Armitage will be appearing on George Stroumboulopoulos’s TV show in Toronto, Canada on Monday 3rd December at 3.15pm and tickets can be purchased here. Click ‘Show Date’ to select 3rd December. Thanks to @RA_Central for the heads up and thanks to Jenny for confirming that shows are usually available online the day after they are recorded. A tweet from the official Strombo twitter account confirms it will be televised and no air date has been set yet.

2. Rolling Stone’s special Hobbit issue is now in stores in the US. More information on the issue here: www.rollingstone.com.

1. A Hobbit trailer incorporating all clips released from the film so far has been created by a fan and posted on youtube via TheOneRing.net. The 7.5 minute video shows all clips from the official trailers and TV Spots in one cleverly edited video.

2. Researchers from the University of Waikato in New Zealand and Ryerson University in Canada are inviting fans of the The Hobbit to take part in a survey to discover your thoughts and expectations prior to the film’s release. Further information and an introduction on TheOneRing.net. If your decision to watch the film has anything to do with a certain actor’s participation, then some questions will be relevant.

19th November

1. The names of those attending The Hobbit premiere in Wellington, NZ have been reported by the New Zealand press, with confirmation that Richard Armitage will be there. Sir Ian McKellen, however, is not able to attend. A report on Stuff.co.nz states that stars of the film Martin Freeman, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood and director Peter Jackson will arrive at around 4.30pm and will walk a 500 metre red carpet. 3news.co.nz states that 10 of the remaining 12 dwarves will attend and Wellington.scoop.co.nz lists those 10 dwarves. Stephen Hunter (Bombur) and Ken Stott (Balin) are omitted from that list, however Stephen Hunter confirmed on twitter today that he will be there. Ken Stott will not be able to attend as he is currently playing Uncle Vanya in London’s West End.

2. A new picture of Richard signing autographs at San Diego Comic-Con has been sent to us courtesy of Cambear and is now in the Hobbit-SDCC gallery. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size as this is very large picture.

18th November

1. Our local Wellingtonian, Pamela, has taken some photos outside the Embassy theatre where The Hobbit premiere will take place on 28th November in Wellington, New Zealand. You can see the construction of a Bag End facade complete with a giant Gandalf. Her collection on Flickr also shows posters around the town, bunting inside the Wellington visitor information centre and plenty of Hobbit/Lord of the Rings memorablia in various locations – for details, click on a picture and see the description underneath each one. Many thanks Pamela for these excellent photos.

2. The Sunday Timeshas a Hobbit Special Feature in their magazine today, including a double-page spread with quotes from each of the 13 dwarves. Richard’s comments are about vocal work and working on location.

Click the image to read.

3. There is a new poll in the menu on the left-hand side asking if you will go and see The Hobbit the day it opens in your country. Thanks for voting!

17th November

Information about the Japanese Premiere of The Hobbit

The premiere will take place on Saturday 1st December at TOHO Cinemas, Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. Richard Armitage will be in attendance along with Peter Jackson, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman, Hugo Weaving and Elijah Wood according to this article on ameba.jp. An English version of events can be found on Middle-earth News.

1. Canadian movie magazine news: unfortunately we missed this vote to request Thorin on the cover of Tribute magazine, but look out for The Hobbit article when the magazine is available in theatres soon. It will also be sent to subscribers of The Sunday Sun.

2. Fault magazine have tweeted that they are interviewing Richard today for their December issue (more details about the issue in the news 19 October) and they have also stated on Facebook that a photo and video shoot has already taken place in NYC. The December issue will be available in early January 2013.

4. This new picture of Thorin has appeared on the Kili facebook page, obtained from the German calendar featured in the news 13 November below.

Some images from the calendar are different to the thumbnail images shown online as a result of the decision to make three films instead of two, thereby changing the ending of film one. This picture of Thorin is actually from the NEW October sheet, not displayed in the thumbnail images.

Click the picture to enlarge.

15th November

This week’s issue of US Weekly magazine has some new quotes from Richard Armitage about wearing prosthetics and also there is a new (small) picture of him inset, which has not been seen before. A new photoshoot perhaps?

Update: new scan uploaded with thanks to Patricia for the information about the magazine and Janine for the scan.

14th November

A new scene between Bilbo and Thorin features in Hobbit TV Spot #6 out now on The Hobbit Facebook page and youtube. Thorin: “Why did you come?” Bilbo: “I know you doubt me, I know you always have…”

Screencaps from this trailer and other short trailers shown in the last two months are in the Hobbit Short Trailers gallery. Spoiler warning – some pics taken from TV Spot #6 may be considered spoilers!

13th November

1. Thanks to Jessie for her latest signature banner of Thorin Oakenshield on the signatures page. We could do with more Thorin signatures on this page, so if you have any you would like to submit please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , thanks!

4. The complete The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey soundtrack can now be heard on Empire magazine’s website. Update: this has now been removed. Howard Shore’s soundtrack is available to buy from 10th December in standard and deluxe editions. Amazon links are in the news 6th November (item #4) below with RAnet tags to earn referral fees for charity.

5. Kiteflier has created a beautiful North and South wallpaper for your desktop background should you choose to display it. There are two sizes available on this site (click the size and right-mouse-click to set as your Desktop Background) or follow the link to her livejournal account for more.

2. Two new XL Hobbit banners featuring Thorin are now in the Hobbit Stills gallery: #42a and #71. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size.

3. Richard on PBS WNED (Buffalo, NY and Toronto, Canada): on Mondays at 3.00pm and Saturdays at 7.00pm they are showing Robin Hood season 1; on Thursdays at 10.00pm and Sundays at 2.00am they are showing MI-5/Spooks season 9. Thanks to Esther.

4. Richard on KCTS 9 (Washington State and British Columbia, Canada): KCTS 9 are showing MI-5/Spooks season 8 on Wednesdays at 11.00pm. Thanks to Audrey.

5. Four pictures of Richard taken from the Denny’s Behind the Scenes video (see news 7th Nov) are now in the gallery.

6. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will attend the UK premiere of The Hobbit on 12th December, announced by thefancarpet.com. This tweet confirms that Peter Jackson, Sir Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis and Cate Blanchett will attend the UK premiere, and when I asked about Richard, this was their reply.

7. Hobbit TV Spot #5 has just been posted on The Hobbit Facebook page and on youtube. You can see Thorin jumping to strike at the trolls and then swinging round with his new sword Orcrist at some goblins.

8. Warner Bros. have listed Richard Armitage in their Best Supporting Actor category suggestion for 2012. Scroll down the left-hand side for their suggested list. Thanks to Monetsmum and 30Rock.

11th November

1. New Hobbit banners have appeared on various news sites, but Live for Filmshas displayed all seven different designs on their site. One of them includes Thorin – click the image on the left to enlarge.

Thanks to Em for the link.

2. I’m afraid there is bad news if you were not able to obtain a Thorin cover of the Empire magazine December 2012 issue, the Empire website has sold out!

10th November

1. New high resolution images of Thorin Oakenshield added to the gallery

High quality images from Brian Sibley’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide have been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery, specifically those numbered #60-69. Each picture is quite large, so click the ‘original image’ button in the bottom-right corner to see the full size.

Press F5 to refresh the screen if you cannot see the new images in the gallery.

To order the book, see news 27 Oct for Amazon links.

I’ve also added new images from the Hobbit stamp collection, with thanks to Anna. Pictures 57, 58 and 59 are new. Click ‘original image’ to enlarge.

2. The Warner Bros shop has a large selection of Hobbit merchandise, should you wish to indulge! If some of these items are the same price (or cheaper) on Amazon, please consider using the Amazon links under the picture of the day on the home page of this site to earn referral fees for charity. Thank you to Emma for the WB shop link.

3. Beautiful animated Hobbit postcards are available on the official Hobbit website. Email to your friends or send via twitter and facebook.

2. A donation to The Salvation Army was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of August 2012. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page and earning referral fees for charity. Further details here.

3. Sarah Wayne Callies, Richard’s co-star in Black Sky, was recently interviewed by Collider about The Walking Dead and at the end of the interview there is a very brief mention of working with Richard. Warning – lots of spoilers about The Walking Dead.

4. The picture of the day archive for October 2012 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

8th November

1. One minute previews of each track on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey soundtrack:click here to listen to a preview of each track, including more of Misty Mountains sung by Richard, and also click here to listen to the previews on the Special Edition soundtrack page as the previews are slightly different for some tracks. Spoiler warning! Thanks to MTRougeau on the TORn forum.

Update 9th November: sorry the sample previews have been disabled, but the preview of Misty Mountains has been uploaded to youtube. The ‘Blunt the Knives’ track is here on youtube.

2. This image of Richard in the make-up chair is taken from Brian Sibley’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide.

Click the picture to enlarge.

To order the book, see news 27 Oct for Amazon links.

3. The Hobbit TV Spot #4 extended on youtube. New images of Richard as Thorin from this trailer and other short trailers released recently are in this gallery.

Animated gifs of behind the scenes filming in Bag End have appeared on tumblr, which appear to be associated with the US diner Denny’s. As reported by TheOneRing.net in October, Denny’s will be sharing exclusive behind the scenes content: “Fans can also experience additional movie content by scanning one of four QR codes on Denny’s placemats in-restaurant, including access to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey exclusive video content, online games and a behind-the-scenes look at Denny’s National TV spot.”

Scroll down the tumblr page to see more clips of many of the actors, including Richard, commenting on the dwarves’ love of food and the chaos they caused in Bilbo’s home.

1. New behind the scenes pictures from The Hobbit have been posted on ComicBookMovie.com, taken from Brian Sibley’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide. The two pictures of Richard have been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery, one of which is here on the left – click to enlarge.

To order the book, see news 27 Oct for Amazon links.

2. Hobbit Soundtrack news:TheOneRing.net has posted a link to a preview of Howard Shore’s “Radagast the Brown” from the soundtrack of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The soundtrack will be available from 10th December from Watertower Music and includes a track entitled ‘Misty Mountains performed by Richard Armitage and The Dwarf Cast‘. There will also be a Special Edition of the soundtrack. If you would like to pre-order the soundtrack, here are some Amazon links with the RAnet tags attached so that referral fees are paid to charity:

3. On 2nd November, Empire magazine previewed 17 new Hobbit posters, one of which is a familiar shot of Thorin already found in our Hobbit Stills galleryas it featured on the cover of the December 2012 issue of Empire. Scans from the issue can be found in the news 25 Oct below. The poster is here on the left, click to enlarge.

Nels Israelson, the photographer who took the 3D poster images has displayed moving animation of four of the 3D images on his website. The 3D moving Thorin image is definitely worth a look, and you can watch moving images of Gandalf, Bilbo and Galadriel too from that link. Thanks to Narflet on the TORn forum.

4. TheOneRing.net posted this picture of Fili, Thorin and Kili on their Facebook page on 1st November. Click to enlarge.

5. A new international trailer for The Hobbit was posted on youtube by Warner Bros. Mexico on 1st November.

Update 8th November: this version of the same trailer is without subtitles, posted by Warner Bros. Pictures on youtube.

7. Huge silhouettes of the thirteen dwarves and the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, constructed by Weta Workshop, have been installed on the New Zealand Post Office headquarters in Wellington, NZ. Read more on the Weta NZ website.

Other News

1. Richard Armitage on TV in Poland: Richard is appearing in North and South, Robin Hood, Moving On and Captain America in Poland in the next few days. Click here for the TV schedule. Thanks to Sylwia.

2. Captain America in France: Canal+ will be showing this movie on Friday 9 November and Saturday 10 November. Thanks to Joane.

2. An old article, fun to read and not posted here before: in August 2011, ComicBookMovie.com suggested Richard Armitage as the new Batman with an all-British cast in supporting roles. Thanks to Jaydee09.

27th October

1. A picture from Brian Sibley’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide has been posted on TheOneRing.net’s message boards. This imageshows Jed Brophy, Aidan Turner and Richard Armitage (not credited for some reason!) in the early days of training. If you would like to order Brian Sibley’s book, here are some Amazon links with the RAnet tags attached so that referral fees are paid to charity. Amazon US and UK will be releasing the book on November 8th:

1. Empire magazine’s December issue has a bumper section devoted to The Hobbit (63 pages) including an article about each dwarf, interviews with Richard Armitage, Sir Ian McKellen, Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett, quotes from other cast and crew members, a lengthy article about Peter Jackson, an article about Tolkien’s novel and lots and lots of pictures. The relevant Richard Armitage pages have been scanned in below. Click to enlarge.

The issue comes with a separate 3D lenticular cover, which (for subscribers) is not attached to the magazine but has been printed on card and could be displayed as a poster.

2. Members of the press visited the set earlier this year and were given access to cast and crew, although no pictures could be taken. Yesterday, a press embargo was lifted at 9.00am PST for articles about The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Further reports relevant to the second film will be issued late next year before the film’s release. Here is a list of yesterday’s articles that include quotes from, or comments about, Richard:

An interview with Richard by Garth Franklin on Dark Horizons, with quotes from Richard about the inspiration he took for the forced exile of the dwarves, what he thinks of 3D and filming battle scenes including an accident with a shield!

Weta Workshop’s Richard Taylor Talks Creating the Dwarves… from Collider. “Thorin has been our single greatest challenge, both at a prosthetic design level and an armor costume level…his character transforms during that journey. And capturing the nobility, yet darkly held concerns and weight of the world in his face and his character, and complimenting Richard’s amazing stature as an actor through our work was very, very challenging.”

Massive secrets of The Hobbit – Revealed! on IO9. “I think Thorin is trying to prove that Gandalf isn’t correct, and most of his assumption is that he’s trying to usurp his leadership. When Gandalf isn’t there, Thorin really becomes a leader, and when [Gandalf] turns up, [Thorin] has to be subservient, and it’s not something that he likes at all.”

From the Set: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Part 1 and Part 2 by ComingSoon.net. “The Arkenstone is certainly something which he covets and craves,” Armitage explains, “and he knows that without that gem, he can never truly be king… I think the burden of taking his people back to their homeland, which is so massive, makes him a lonely figure…”

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Set Visit by IGN. “I figured that why would they want a six-foot-two guy to play a dwarf? And even through the early days of rehearsal and shooting, I didn’t really unpack my bag for about three weeks, ’cause I thought that I was going to be on the plane going home. But yeah, it’s worked out all right.”

3. Dawn French participated in a webchat with Mumsnet yesterday and Moominmamma12 on Twitter asked her “what snogging RA was like!” and she replied as follows: “I was a bit shocked to find out how young he is. The producer on Vicar of Dibley lied to me in order to get me to agree since I had said my vicar husband should really be someone my age. Anyway, when he turned up all sense left the building and I insisted on lots of rehearsals of the snogging scene. He didn’t object. Yes, indeed – very nice.” Thanks M!

24th October

1. The Hobbit Movie Official Facebook page has a HD version of a new TV trailer for The Hobbit, with new scenes including some new dialogue from Thorin. Watch it here on Facebook or on youtube and click the button for full screen.

2. EMPIRE Magazine published in the UK and on sale Thursday, has five different Hobbit 3D lenticular covers, a special Hobbit supplement and an exclusive interview with Richard Armitage and other members of the cast. Pictures of the covers and quotes from Richard are on UnrealityTV.co.uk. A link to the Thorin cover is here, click to enlarge.

1. Strike Back series 1 in Australia: series 1 starts on ABC1 at 11.00pm tonight. Thanks to Robyn.

2. Thanks to Kaisa for her pencil drawing of Lucas North which is now on the Artwork page.

3. Instant streaming of TV shows and movies with Amazon Prime at Amazon.com: much of Richard’s work can be watched commercial-free via instant streaming to your PC, Mac, Kindle or other compatible players by signing up to Amazon Prime for $79 per year. This includes North and South, all seasons of Spooks/MI-5, Robin Hood, Captain America, Miss Marple: Ordeal by Innocence and The Vicar of Dibley. Note: the shows/movies are streamed not downloaded, but can be watched any time and any place with a wifi connection. Amazon Prime via Amazon.co.uk does not currently offer instant streaming of TV shows or movies. Thanks to Patricia for this information.

More info from Leigh in the comments section on the home page: “The service is currently only available if you use a U.S. server. It may function using a “proxy server” that behaves as if it is a U.S. server, but results are not guaranteed.”

Update: Amazon Prime membership will NOT earn referral fees for charity. Please use the Amazon links under the picture of the day if you want to order any other product to earn referral fees. For further information, see ‘what type of purchase will earn a referral fee’ on the DVD page. Thanks.

20th October

A new image of Thorin Oakenshield has appeared on Amazon.com and is available to buy as a life-sized cardboard cutout!

I’ve added this and other items to the RichardArmitageNet Amazon.com store (the link to Amazon.co.uk store is under picture of the day), or you can use this link to browse the item on the Amazon website with the RAnet tag included. Proceeds from sales via that link will raise money for charity.

This image and other new pictures released in the last few days have been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery.

19th October

1. According to posts on social media and since confirmed by the magazine, it appears that Richard Armitage will appear in the next issue of Fault Magazine, a film, music and fashion magazine published in London. This tweet from a fashion assistant stated that Richard will appear in the December issue and this comment on Facebook from Shayne Benigno, a make-up artist, suggests that there will be a 5 page spread in the magazine. Fault magazine is published quarterly.

Thanks to @FAULTMagazine for their confirmation on twitter this morning. This tweet states the official release date for this magazine is 31st December, which means copies will be delivered early January 2013.

Update: the magazine inform me that there will be a “minimum 5 page spread on Richard in FAULT Issue 13″. Issues can be bought online and shipped to addresses in the UK and internationally distributed by DHL Global Mail. Single issues can be purchased from the issues page - http://fault-magazine.com/issues/

If you are going to order an issue, I would suggest holding out until early December. There might be some useful information which I will pass on at that time.

3. TheOneRing.net have posted pictures from the just released Hobbit Playing Cards and this one (also left) shows Richard Armitage and Dean O’Gorman (Thorin and Fili). Warning: some of these pictures show spoilers.

2. TheOneRing have produced a special collector’s magazine for The Hobbit and scans showing the article about Richard as Thorin are posted below, with thanks to Saraleee. Click the images to enlarge. This magazine is currently only available in the US (and Canada – see guestbook 17th October).

14th October

A donation to Childline was made yesterday from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of July 2012 and Amazon.com for the months of June and July 2012, making a total donation of £126.30. Thank you to all those who have used the Amazon links on the home page to earning referral fees for charity!

Amazon pay this website a referral fee on ANY item you purchase if you visit their website by clicking on one of the Amazon links on the home page found under the picture of the day. Further details here.

13th October

1. Five new high resolution images have been added to the Hobbit SDCC gallery: comiccon-panel-04, 05, 06, 07 and 08 are new. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size, but they may take a few seconds to download as they are very large images. With thanks to Cesta.

1. Hobbit stamps and commemorative coins: the New Zealand Post has produced a set of official stamps and coins to commemorate the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey including images of Thorin Oakenshield and other major characters, as reported on the TVNZ site. Sir Ian McKellen is quoted as saying “To put Gandalf on these splendiferous coins is a wizard idea”.

NZ Post will ship orders overseas should you wish to order. Details here.

Click the images below to enlarge.

The full image that was used on the stamp has been posted on ComicBookMovie.com and also shown on the left – click to enlarge.

2. Four new Hobbit banners have been released by Warner Bros and reported on a few sites including Collider.com. One of the banners shows Thorin and has been reproduced here, click to enlarge. Collider also have a clearer image of the stamps and the image above has been replaced to show this better picture of the stamps.

3. The Argentinian site Cine1.com has revealed a new Hobbit poster, which is an image from the end of the latest Hobbit scroll (click ‘original image’ to see the full size). Click the image on the left to see more.

All the new Hobbit images have been added to the end of the Hobbit Stills gallery. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size of each image.

4. Richard has been listed as one of ten ‘Breakout movie actors of Fall 2012′ according to HitFix.com. Richard is #9 in the list.

“Armitage will perform much of the film’s muscle work, and even a pound of makeup can’t hide his good looks. Plus, there are two more “Hobbit” films to look forward to, giving audiences plenty of time to fall in love with him…”

Richard on TV in Germany, Switzerland and Austria: Strike Back series 1 starts today at 10.30pm on RTL Crime and North and South starts on Thursday 11th October at 8.15pm on the RTL Passion channel. Thanks to Monika.

A new Hobbit promo image, officially licensed for printing on t-shirts, has been revealed on ComicBookMovie.com. Click the image on the right to enlarge.

Other Hobbit merchandise, such as statues, books and Lego characters may not always be listed on this news page, but will be added to the RAnet Amazon Stores if available through Amazon (accessible via the links under the picture of the day).

The official Hobbit movie site has released a new Hobbit Character Scroll featuring new images of the cast. Our picture of the day features Thorin from the new scroll. The full XL scroll is in the Hobbit Stills gallery. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size, and also the close-up of Thorin.

The poster has been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery (press F5 to refresh the screen if you cannot see the image).

2. Another Hobbit Premiere date has been announced: the US premiere will take place on December 6, 2012 at 7.00pm at the Ziegfeld Theatre, New York. The London premiere date was announced in the news 24th September. Thanks to the TORn Hobbit forum for this information.

3. Strike Back series 2 in Australia: channel 7 are broadcasting series 2 on Sunday 30th September at 8.30pm. Richard appears in the first episode only. Thanks to Bo and Rafaella.

4. Thanks to Joane for her latest painting of Guy of Gisborne now on the Artwork page.

24th September

The UK premiere of The Hobbit will be a Royal Film Performance, a charity performance held in London on 12th December, attended by members of the Royal Family. Reported by The Hollywood Reporter and on the BBC News site.

21st September

This article in the Detroit Free Press states that filming of Black Sky is due to finish on Thursday. As yet, there is no information on what is lined up next for Richard apart from additional filming ofThe Hobbit next year.

2. The official Hobbit Movie twitter account has announced the timing of the release of the next Hobbit trailer, due out tomorrow on the Apple iTunes site. It will be available at 7am PT/10am ET, which is 3pm UK time. There is a new picture of Bilbo accompanying the picture.

3. The behind the scenes production video that was shown at Comic-Con in July had extra clips that were not shown in production video #8 on Peter Jackson’s Facebook page. The Comic-Con version has appeared on Allocine France and has an extra clip of Richard as Thorin, sitting down with Graham McTavish and William Kircher. The video also includes clips of previously unseen characters, Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) and the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry). Update: The video has been taken down – TheOneRing.net says it is at the request of Warner Bros.

4. TheOneRing.net’s Facebook page has some new pictures from The Hobbit including two fantastic new shots of Thorin Oakenshield. Click each picture to enlarge (you do not have to be a member of Facebook to see them). These two images have been added to the end of the Hobbit Stills gallery. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size.

17th September

1. Peter Jackson has announced on his facebook page the start of “An Interesting Week” including the debut of the second Hobbit trailer, which will be released on Wednesday 19th September and the reveal of some ‘special content’ some time this week.

2. New pictures from The Hobbit are on the USA Today site. Picture #6 shows a new picture of Thorin and company with the following quote from co-writer and co-producer Philippa Boyens:

Boyens feels The Hobbit is as much the story of Thorin (Richard Armitage) as it is of Bilbo Baggins. “You want him to inherit this kingdom. You want to feel that if he can take back his homeland, he’ll rule for a good many years.”

A larger version of this picture is now in the Hobbit Stills gallery, click ‘original image’ to see the full size.

The official Hobbit Movie twitter account has posted a picture of Thorin that we have seen before, but this is a wider shot and high resolution. It comes with the following text: “Loyalty, honor and a willing heart… I can ask no more than that.” – Thorin Oakenshield. Dialogue from the movie perhaps? The picture is now in the Hobbit Stills gallery, click ‘original image’ to see the full size.

14th September

Inspector Lynley Mysteries in Australia: UKTV are showing In Divine Proportion, the episode in which Richard played Philip Turner, on Monday 17th September at 1.00pm EST. Thanks to Pauline. Clips from the episode are here.

13th September

1. Tuesday’s Leicester Mercury newspaper included a supplement listing ‘The Most Influential People in Leicestershire’ and Richard was included in this list. The four criteria included people who had roles within large organisations, people who lead companies of significance in the local area, those who had key historical, cultural and religious roles and people who through their talent or achievement have a positive or inspirational impact on the lives of others. Click the scan to read Richard’s entry in the supplement, with thanks to Agenoria.

2. Thanks to Lady Prisca for the latest drawing of Richard Armitage on the Artwork page.

12th September

1. Robin Hood series 1 in Atlanta: PBA Channel 30 are reshowing series 1 starting Friday 14 September at 9.00pm. Thanks to Gail.

2. The link between Richard Armitage’s desire to bring the true story of Richard III to the screen (e.g. Vulpes Libres interview and GMTV interview 3 Oct 2007) and today’s historic news about the possible discovery of the King’s remains will encourage those who hope that Richard III’s true story will finally be heard. Richard Buckley, Director of Archaeological Services at the University of Leicester describes the dig’s findings in this fascinating video on youtube. (Update 23 Sept: video removed but full press conference about the findings is here). A Channel 4 documentary about the dig will be broadcast later this year.

10th September

Here’s a new picture of Richard on the set of Black Skyposted on twitter by producer Todd Garner.

1. Two new additions to the Hobbit Stills gallery today via the the Hobbit Movie App described in yesterday’s news: this high resolution image was first shown in the Hobbit trailer and this image is a high resolution close-up of Thorin and Gandalf from the new Hobbit scroll. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size of each image.

1. The official Hobbit Movie twitter account has posted a link to a Hobbit Movies app via iTunes which contains new pictures of all the cast, a location map, 360 views of Hobbiton and Bag End and much more, including a new Hobbit scroll. The scroll reveals a revised ending for the first film, An Unexpected Journey, and differs from the original scroll released on 9th July. The Hobbit Movie app is free and well worth downloading if you can.

Update: Six new pictures of Thorin have been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size of each picture. The gallery has been recreated – now that it is getting larger I have removed older images not showing Thorin.

2. I’ve added some of the latest Hobbit merchandise to the RichardArmitageNet Amazon stores UK and US (links also under the pic of the day). Just click ‘Hobbit Merchandise’ on the right-hand side. Or you can search for Hobbit goods after clicking either of the two Amazon logos under the picture of the day in order to raise commission for charity. Further information about the Amazon Associate programme are described in the news 30th August.

6th September

1. North and South in Hungary: BBC Entertainment and the Story5 channel will be showing North and South in the next few days. Here is the TV schedule. Thanks to Monika.

2. Spooks series 7 is now available via the BBC iPlayer (Global) app available from iTunes Australia, however you must pay a subscription fee for full access. Thanks to Di for the info.

3. Spooks series 7 in BC, Canada:KCTS9 are reshowing series 7 starting Wednesday 12th September at 11.00pm. Thanks to Audrey.

5th September

1. Strike Back in Australia: the entire first series of Strike Back will be shown on UKTV Foxtel channel 103 this Sunday starting at 12:20 AEST. Thanks to Pauline and Flodwyns.

2. Spooks 9 in South Africa: series 9 starts on Friday 14th September at 21:05 on BBC Entertainment South Africa (Channel 120 on DSTV). Thanks to Kirsten.

3. Todd Garner, producer of Black Sky, has posted this picture showing Richard in the centre of the picture and Nathan Kress on the right-hand side. He has since confirmed it is Richard. Not quite the next official photo of Richard that we were hoping for, but it made me laugh at least.

4th September

The picture of the day archive for August 2012 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

3rd September

1. The Hobbit 2013 annual has a couple of new pictures of Thorin Oakenshield including a double page spread about his character. The annual is aimed at children with puzzles and games throughout, and includes facts about the story of The Hobbit and its characters.

All pictures of Thorin have been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery. Click ‘original image’ to view the full size of each picture. Press F5 to refresh the screen if you cannot see the new pictures.

The Hobbit annual was released on 30 August 2012. Full details about how to order from Amazon and raise commission for charity can be found in the news 30 August.

2. A donation to Barnardo’s was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of June 2012. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page and earning referral fees for charity. Further details here.

2nd September

A new picture of John Thornton has appeared on the Fanpop site, showing Thornton looking through his office window during this scene in episode 2. The image has been added to the North and South Promo gallery here (click ‘original image’ to see the full size) and also a larger version of a familiar picture of Thornton has been added here (again, click ‘original image’).

1st September

1. RAFrenzy’s interview with Todd Garner: producer of Black Sky, Todd Garner, has given some fascinating insights into Richard’s involvement in the tornado movie currently filming in Michigan. Richard has contributed much more than acting in the lead role: “He’s an amazing actor but also a terrific writer even though he wouldn’t say that. He has come up with great moments not only for himself and others but for the movie. In fact we just finished shooting a moment he came up with that might be in the trailer.” Read the whole interview on Frenz’s blog.

2. The title of the second Hobbit film has been announced as The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which will be released on 13 December 2013 in the US and UK. The third film, which takes the name originally given to the second film, will be called The Hobbit: There and Back Again and will be released on 18 July 2014. Many websites are reporting this news from the Warner Bros. press release, such as Entertainment Weekly and Bleeding Cool (with full text from the press release).

The first film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be shown in cinemas in the UK and US on 14 December this year.

31st August

Spooks 7 in The Netherlands: series 7 is starting on Nederland 3 on Sunday 2nd September at 20:25. Thanks to Karin and Megs.

30th August

1. The Official 2013 Hobbit annual is out today and available to buy at Amazon UK and Amazon US. If you use those links to order, Amazon will pay this website a referral fee and I will pay 100% of that fee to one of Richard’s nominated charities. The Hobbit annual is published by Harper Collins Children’s Books. It contains exclusive pictures and is a companion guide to the first movie in the trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Thanks to Jen for the email.

A note on ordering from Amazon UK/US: click one of the Amazon logos under the pic of the day on the home page and orders you subsequently place during that session (assuming you don’t leave the Amazon website before ordering) will earn referral fees for charity. You can order almost any item from Amazon to earn referral fees. For more information see the RA on DVD page. Note, the RAnet reference tag tends to disappear from the address bar (the URL) after one click, but the order will still earn referral fees as Amazon tracks the original URL that you used to enter their site.

2. Three new images of Thorin Oakenshield and one of Richard from Black Sky have been made into new puzzles and added to the Jigsaws page today. Scroll down to see the latest jigsaws.

29th August

1. Another fan has met Richard on the set of Black Sky in Michigan. Her full account with pictures is on the RichardArmitageCentral website.

2. Another ‘Black Sky’ report from The Oakland Post, but this one has more detail about the location, the equipment used and quotes from the producer Todd Garner.

28th August

Amazon.co.uk are running a competition to win 2 tickets to the London premiere of The Hobbit. This competition is only available to UK residents I’m afraid and you can only enter once, purchases are not necessary. Terms and conditions are further down the page. If you do make a purchase at Amazon, don’t forget to use one of the Amazon logos above, then Amazon will pay this site referral fees and 100% of that fee will be paid to charity. Thank you.

23rd August

A new picture of Thorin Oakenshield wielding his sword Orcrist has been posted on a collectibles site CB Swords. Thanks to @Heirs_of_Durin. Click the image to enlarge.This image and the new picture of Thorin with the key is now in the Hobbit Stills gallery.

23rd August

Todd Garner, producer of Richard’s latest movie Black Sky, has posted a picture on twitterof Richard in character.Synopsis from the publicist:”In the span of a single day, the town of Silverton is ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The entire town is at the mercy of the erratic and deadly cyclones, even as storm trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Most people seek shelter, while others run towards the vortex, testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot.

Told through the eyes and lenses of professional storm chasers, thrill-seeking amateurs, and courageous townspeople, “Black Sky” throws you directly into the eye of the storm to experience Mother Nature at her most extreme.”

Shooting began on July 23 and will wrap on September 27 according to this report on the Oakland Press site.

22nd August

1. Joane has drawn a picture of Richard for his birthday, based on one of Heathra’s pictures in the SDCC gallery, which you can now see on the Artwork page. Thanks Joane!

2. Another fan encounter with Richard at Oakland University campus in Michigan. This one took place yesterday and is a fun read. Thanks for permission to post @AwkwardCeleb!

3. Due to the volume of messages to the Birthday message page I’ve extended the deadline to 22:00 UK time. The page will close for new messages after this time. Thank you all.

4. The official twitter account for The Hobbit, @TheHobbitMovie, have tweeted a high resolution picture of Richard in honour of his birthday. I’ve added this to the Hobbit Stills gallery (#30). Click ‘original image’ to see the full size – it’s huge! The original pic from the Entertainment Weekly iPad issue is #29 in the gallery.

21st August

1. Heirs of Durin has discovered a new Hobbit Calendar and Special Edition Scroll Calendar, with a fantastic new shot of Thorin as you may have noticed in today’s pic of the day. Information has now been withdrawn until the calendar is released in October. The picture mentioned in the news on 19 August features in the calendar.

2. The Birthday message page will close for new messages at 20:00 UK time tomorrow. Thank you for all your birthday wishes! An email has been sent to Richard’s agent to notify him.

3. ItsJSforMe has provided more pictures of the Black Sky film set at Oakland University campus in Michigan. The last 8 images in the gallery are new, with a description underneath each image. Press F5 if you cannot see the new images. Previous news on these pictures is in the news 18 August.

4. More high res stills from The Hobbit have been published on Flicks and Bits. The Thorin and other calendar pictures are the same ones mentioned by Heirs of Durin in news item #1 above.

20th August

1. The untitled tornado movie, originally known as Category 6, has been given the title “Black Sky” according to the film’s publicist as reported on nickutopia.com. Todd Garner, the producer of this film, tweeted this news from his twitter account earlier today.

2. Spooks on PBS Buffalo-Toronto: series 9 will start this Thursday 23 August at 22:00. Thanks to Susmita.

3. Robin Hood series 3 in France: France 4 are showing series 3 every Wednesday afternoon at 14:40. Thanks to Véronique.

4. A new Hobbit poster showing Bilbo, Gandalf and the 13 dwarves has been printed in the Aug 2012 White Dwarf magazine (scroll to 3rd post), available at Games Workshop in the UK. There is a clearer view of Thorin on this poster site. Thanks to Karima.

18th August

1. RAlover has kindly shared her pictures after meeting Richard a few days ago on the set of the untitled tornado movie at Oakland University campus. See the news posted on 17th August for her report (item #1). There are descriptions of the pictures taken by her and by ItsJSforMe in the new candids gallery on the site. Click on a picture to read the description at the bottom. Thanks to both ladies for sharing these pictures with RAnet.

2. A new gallery of HQ pictures from the Hobbit panel at San Diego Comic-Con has been added to the site. Click ‘original image’ to view the full size of each image, then click again on the image to zoom in. With many thanks to Heathra who took these photos from just 4 rows from the front!

3. Spooks 9 in Australia: series 9 is finally coming to the UKTV channel. It starts on Thursday 20th September at 7.30pm. Thanks to Robyn and Flodwyns.

17th August

1. Two fans of Richard have been lucky enough to catch up with him on set in Michigan in the last few days and it makes for great reading on ItsJSforMe’s blog. Richard was happy to pose for pictures and he and a stunt coordinator on the movie revealed some information about the new tornado film. Scroll down her blog if you wish to leave a message.

He plays a school teacher

His character has two sons, one of which is played by Nathan Kress

His character has an American accent

The movie is set in Silverton, Oklahoma

The other lady’s report and pictures are on the AA forum and C19 forum. You will have to register to read these reports.

2. Spooks series 9 in France: the Canal+ Decale channel are showing series 9 starting Monday 20 August at 14:50. More information here plus a slightly different shot of Lucas on their main page. This picture has been added to the Spooks Promo gallery.

3. Richard on TV in Ireland: Spooks series 9 is on RTE1 on Friday mornings at 02:20 (next Friday is episode 7) and Robin Hood series 1 is on RTE2 on Saturdays at 14:35 (tomorrow afternoon they are showing episode 11). Thanks to Jean.

4. A donation to Shelter was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.com for the month of May 2012. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page and earning referral fees for charity. Further details here.

5. Thanks to Joane for her latest painting of John Thornton now on the Artwork page.

6. New additions to the Golden Hour Promo gallery: GHPromo-21 is new and GHPromo-09 and GHPromo-11 are now larger. Press F5 to refresh the screen if you cannot see the changes to the gallery. Thanks to Karima.

16th August

1. Todd Garner, producer of the untitled tornado movie that Richard is currently filming in Michigan, has posted this picture on twitter from the set. Richard is on the left.

“His portrayal as dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield in the upcoming trilogy could provide Armitage’s career with the kind of boost enjoyed by “The Lord of the Rings” star Viggo Mortensen”

3. A reminder that there are 6 days left to leave a message for Richard’s birthday on the Birthday Message page. The page will close for new comments on 22 August. Thank you.

4. Spooks 7 in Israel: channel 23 is showing Spooks daily at the moment. Series 7 episode 4 will air tonight at 23:30. Thanks to Arfan.

5. Here’s another location report for the untitled tornado movie on the Oakland Township site. A parking lot on Oakland University campus has been transformed into a used car dealership.

10th August

Another news page, from the same Oakland Township site posted below on 8th August, has some information about other filming locations soon to be used for the untitled tornado movie that Richard is currently filming.

8th August

1. There is now a SDCC 2012 page on this site (also listed in the menu on the left) summarising all the interviews, pictures and news articles that took place on Saturday 14th July at San Diego Comic-Con. Video interviews will be removed from this page to speed up loading time, but all the relevant clips have been moved to this new SDCC page.

2. There is some new information about the tornado movie that is currently shooting in Oakland Township, Michigan via oaklandtownshippatch.com. The report includes pictures showing the equipment outside the school used to create the weather effects. Richard stars in the movie but we do not yet know his character name or his role in the story.

Here is a synopsis from the publicist:

“In the span of a single day, the town of Silverton is ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The entire town is at the mercy of the erratic and deadly cyclones, even as storm trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Most people seek shelter, while others run towards the vortex, testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot.”

3. Four new signature banners have been added to the site, created by Abigail, Angelfish69 and myself as a result of the recent graphics competition on the C19 forum. They are at the top of this signatures page.

2. Strike Back in New Zealand: series 1 starring Richard as John Porter is currently showing on UKTV on Saturday afternoons at 12.45pm and Sunday evenings at 8.30pm. Thanks to Anna.

3. Thanks to Gratiana for two new Thorin Oakenshield wallpapers, which you can find here. Click the thumbnails to view the full size.

3rd August

1. All of the Richard Armitage bits at San Diego Comic-Con have been compiled and uploaded to YouTube so that you can watch interviews with Richard and his appearance in Hall H as part of The Hobbit panel without interruption. Many thanks to tehi for compiling this video for RAnet.

2. The picture of the day archive for July 2012 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

2nd August

1. Regal Cinemas have uploaded a slightly different Hobbit trailer on YouTube that has been showing in some cinemas. There are four scenes which are slightly different from the original trailer and to help you spot them Heirs of Durin have created screencaps. With thanks to the forum on TheOneRing.net.

2. There is now a RichardArmitageNet YouTube page containing videos of Richard, interviews, trailers and appearances. I will be transferring some of the larger videos on this site over to that page in the next few weeks in order to free up space on the server, but also to give ease of access to the material on the site. Videos will not be removed from this site, but will be embedded from my YouTube page (i.e. they will be displayed like the Hobbit trailer above, in a YouTube window). Please subscribe to the page for updates.

30th July

Peter Jackson has announced that The Hobbit will now be three films instead of two, taking material from the appendices of Lord of the Rings to complete the story of The Hobbit. Variety have posted that the third installment will be released in the summer of 2014. This article is for registered users only, so click below to read the article stating the 3rd film release date:

The announcement has now appeared on The Hobbit Facebook page with quotes from the president of New Line Cinema and the president of Warner Bros. Pictures Group. The second film was originally entitled ‘There and Back Again’, but they have omitted the title of films two and three in this press release only stating that film one will be called ‘An Unexpected Journey’ as originally titled.

29th July

There is a Birthday Message page for Richard’s 41st birthday on 22 August should you wish to leave a message. The page will close for new comments on 22 August.

1. It is being reported that Warner Bros. and Peter Jackson want to turn The Hobbit into a trilogy. Additional filming for a third film would take place next summer. More details from the LA Times and the Hollywood Reporter.

2. As per a request in the Comments on the home page, I’ve created a sound file of Richard’s description of walking through the gates of Stone Street in the latest Hobbit production video. Click here to listen or right-mouse-click (Ctrl-click on a Mac) and ‘Save’ to download the mp3 file. This is also on the Sounds page.

3. There is a full transcript of Peter Jackson’s latest production video on TheOneRing.net forums. Thanks to Silverlode.

23rd July

1.Strike Back season 1 in Brazil:episode 2 of season 1 starring Richard as John Porter, will be shown tonight and repeated next Sunday. Click here for the schedule and here is the schedule for episode 3. The picture shows the guys from season 2 but the description is definitely season 1. Thanks to Mari and Christiana.

2. Spooks/MI-5 season 9 in Atlanta, GA: episodes 3 and 4 will be showing tonight at 9pm on WPBA. Thanks to Gail.

3. Peter Jackson has posted Production Video #8 on his facebook page. A fantastic blog with behind-the-scenes clips shown to the audience at Comic-Con. Lots of sightings of Richard and he mentions two lasting memories of working on set. Screencaps in the gallery here.

Have you spotted Richard in the last two pictures? All the cast are standing on the stairs at the back in this picture. Richard is standing near the bottom of the stairs behind Peter Hambleton and in front of William Kircher, with Aidan Turner behind William. He still has Thorin’s long hair and has his hands in his pockets, black shirt and trousers. In this picture, Richard is in the same position on the stairs with Lee Pace standing next to him.

22nd July

Another video has emerged from the Hobbit press conference at SDCC. Fox News has brief quotes from Peter Jackson, Sir Ian McKellen and Richard Armitage (King of the Hobbits?!). Thanks to Kaprekar30.

21st July

Spooks 8 in Australia: series 8 is showing on UKTV on Thursday 26th July at 8.05pm. Thanks to Pauline and Robyn.

Strike Back 2 in Hungary: series 2 will be showing on the MTV1 channel on Saturday 28th July at 11:05pm. Richard appears in the first episode only. Thanks to Zsuszanna.

Strike Back 2 in France: episode 1 is showing tonight on Canal+ at 10.40pm.

2. Spooks series 8 in Poland: here’s the schedule for series 8 on BBC Entertainment starting Saturday 21 July, with episodes showing from July to September. Thanks to Ania.

3. Robin Hood series 2 in Spain: the Boing channel are showing Robin Hood series 2 every Sunday at 19:05 and repeating it on Mondays. Thanks to Theresa.

4. New poll in the menu on the left asking if you’d like to go to SDCC next year. Previous poll results are here – Alan Rickman was the winner, with Colin Firth not far behind.

18th July

1. Videos of the press conference, which took place after the Hobbit panel in Hall H at SDCC, have emerged on youtube. This one (also shown below) is the best quality so far. Thanks to Joane for the email. There are two more videos here and here, but the audio is quite poor. There are different question and answers in all three of these press conference videos. Thanks to Mezz for the links.

1. Another interview with Richard at SDCC on Hitfix.com. Richard comments on the rumours that the second film will be split in two and manages to successfully avoid the question asking when the first film ends. This interview is also on youtube. See the SDCC 2012 page for more info.

2. A fantastic picture of the Hobbit SDCC attendees has been posted on EW.com. This is now on page 4 of the Hobbit SDCC gallery.

3. Here’s a report from the Australian 7NEWS channel about The Hobbit and SDCC with a few seconds from Richard at the 52 second mark. Thanks to Lynne and Ana Cris for the emails.

4. In an interview with Comic-Con radio Sirius XM, Peter Jackson stated that he was flying straight back to New Zealand that evening to complete 10 days of pick-up shooting making a total of 277 filming days for The Hobbit. Watch the interview on youtube. Thanks to @prwelly for the link.

5. Eric Vespe’s report on Aintitcool.com of the Hobbit panel at SDCC is well worth reading for a detailed description of scenes shown and the atmosphere in the hall when the footage was shown. NB: the report is loaded with spoilers. As well as a detailed account of action and dialogue from the film, he describes moments from the production diary, appearances by Luke Evans and Stephen Fry are mentioned, and behind the scenes clips such as Martin Freeman rummaging in the pile of gold hidden in the Lonely mountain.

6. Screencaps for the Fandango interview, the MTV interview and the interview with TheOneRing.net are now in the SDCC Interviews gallery.

16th July

1. We now have video of the entire Hobbit panel (26 minutes), minus Hobbit film footage obviously, on youtube. Thanks to Stella for alerting me to this. An even better quality video has been posted in the news 18th July.

Richard answered one question about working with prosthetics, here’s a transcript of his answer:

Yeah we went through quite an evolution with the look for Thorin and of course all of the dwarves who are kind of very clearly defined by their features. Working in a prosthetic like that is…was one of the biggest challenges, because you really have to work your face harder to you know, portray what you’re trying to express inside and on day one I really didn’t think that I was going to make it anywhere close to two or three weeks into the shoot, but by the end of the journey, it’s… I couldn’t work without it and I didn’t recognise the person underneath it. But managing the heat and the stench of sweaty dwarf was a challenge in itself.

2. This interview on MTV cannot be seen by some countries outside the US unfortunately, however I was able to see it on my iPhone even though I couldn’t see it on my PC. Try your phone/tablet if you have that option. Richard: “I mean it’s been awesome and coming here today and seeing the way the fans are expecting the film, it’s really exciting because you see that expectation and the love for the books and the trilogy, so that’s been great.” Visit the SDCC 2012 page for another link.

3. 14 more photos have been added to the Hobbit SDCC gallery courtesy of Anne G who posted on TheOneRing.net’s live Hobbit feed and also thanks to jpoirier451, who saw Richard, Martin and Andy arriving and then signing autographs at the Warner Bros booth on Saturday. The video she captured featured in yesterday’s news (scroll down).

4. Peter Jackson is considering filming further Hobbit scenes sourced from the appendices at the end of Tolkien’s The Return of the King. He’s in talks with the studios to do more filming next year. Read more on ComingSoon.net.

5. I’ve started capping the SDCC video interviews that are listed in yesterday’s news, starting with the Fandango interview, which is in the SDCC Interviews gallery. More over the next few days.

15th July

1. There’s a plethora of news reports, photos, and interviews from yesterday’s Comic-Con appearance and below is my attempt to provide a summary, and in the case of the news articles, just the best ones as there are hundreds! This page will be updated throughout the day as more news comes in.

Photo gallery: Hobbit SDCC gallery with thanks to Cesta, Jonia and Petra for finding some of these and extra-large versions. Last update 20:10 UK time. Total 67 pictures. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size of each image.

First picture from @HeathraVideos who attended the Hobbit Panel: twitter link (click picture to enlarge)

The EW.com interview, mentioned in the 14 July news below, is now on youtube:

Interview with Richard by Fandango (press play then click the ‘change quality’ button to watch in 720p HD):

Richard is interviewed by IGN and it appears there is still lots more filming to do. Richard: “we are so far from being wrapped, we haven’t even begun to shoot some of the fight sequences that need to be made. We’ll be going back into training for that to make sure that they look…” and video cuts off!

A video clip courtesy of jpoirier451 who was able to watch Richard, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis pose for photographs alongside the 3D posters of their Hobbit characters and then leave the autograph signing area by the Warner Bros booth.

Hobbit Panel round-up in the News (there are spoilers about the Hobbit footage shown in many of these articles)

FirstShowing.net – a minute by minute rundown of events at the Warner Bros Panel. Hobbit coverage started at 4.11pm (scroll down the page)

Richard: “We went through quite an evolution for the look of Thorin. Working with a prosthetic like that is quite a challenge. By Day 1, I didn’t think I would make it 2 or 3 weeks… by the end, I couldn’t work without it.” “Managing the heat and ‘sweaty dwarf’ was a challenge itself.”

Pictures are emerging on twitter from SDCC. Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis have just finished signing autographs at the Warner Bros booth. This tweet and this tweet from @WB_Home_Ent and this from @xFalstaffx.

1. Peter Jackson has posted an explanation on facebook of why he will not be showing 3D 48fps footage from The Hobbit at San Diego Comic-Con. Clips from the film might possibly be shown in the next video blog (which will appear soon) and the next trailer is expected in September.

2. A very positive response to Richard’s casting in New Line’s tornado film on Movies.com: “It was also just announced that The Hobbit actor Richard Armitage will also be appearing in the movie — without makeup, of course — lending some credibility to what could be a throwaway project with too much shaky cam. Sure, it still could be, but we like Armitage (aka Thorin Oakenshield) and if there has to be another found footage movie, we’re glad he’s in it.”

Simon Beaufoy, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Slumdog Millionaire and BAFTA-winning screenwriter of The Full Monty, will be rewriting the screenplay of the film, originally called Category 6.

12th July

1. News from Preview Night at San Diego Comic-Con

Pictures from preview night at San Diego Comic-Con are emerging, including these from IMDB. The large statue of Thorin Oakenshield above the Weta booth is also featured on TheOneRing.net’s photostream on flickr. With thanks to TORn for sharing, you get a fantastic glimpse of the stands around Weta and the Warner Bros’ booths from their photos.

Click for full size (credit IMDB.com)

More photos from Comic-Con including lots more shots of the Thorin statue (not quite life-size apparently!) on this flickr photostream with thanks to @Jurisdog on twitter.

1. EW.com have exclusively revealed that Richard Armitage has landed a major role in a tornado thriller, possibly known as Category 6 (according to comingsoon.net and other sites). Director Steve Quale, who was second unit director on Avatar and Titanic, is directing the movie produced by New Line Cinema. Shooting begins on July 23 in Detroit.

2. Warner Bros have brought out a wallpaper generator to create images to save on your desktop, mobile, facebook cover, twitter skin or to create icons. Note: does not work if you have an iPhone as it’s Flash animation, but you can save the image via your computer and upload to your mobile phone later.

10th July

1. Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis are scheduled to attend a signing event at the Warner Bros booth from 11.15 – 12.00pm at SDCC on Saturday 14th July, prior to their attendance at the Hobbit panel in Hall H at 2.30pm.

2. Another exclusive collectible at San Diego Comic-Con: Gentle Giant have produced a hand-painted mini-bust of Thorin which can be purchased from their booth for $70 during SDCC, or through online sales which start during Preview Night (Weds 11th) at 6pm. Only 500 pieces have been made. More details at TheOneRing.net. Click image below to enlarge.

3. Four new images added to the end of the Hobbit Stills gallery from the news in the last three days. Press F5 if you cannot see images 30 – 33.

4. A donation to Childline was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.com for the months of March and April 2012. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page and earning referral fees for charity. Further details here.

5. A Thorin Oakenshield action figure made by The Bridge Direct has been revealed by MTV- scroll down the page to see the figure or click the image below. Available in both 3.75″ and 6” scale, at a cost of $7.99 and $14.99 and available this October.

9th July

1. The Film Distributors Association have confirmed that the UK release date of The Hobbit will be 14 December 2012 as originally stated, not 26 December as listed by other sources. Good news for UK viewers and our sympathies go to those in Australia, Poland and other countries who have to wait much longer to see this film. Thank you to Middle-earth News for finding out and also TheOneRing.net whose official sources also confirmed the date.

2. Entertainment Weekly have a stunning piece of artwork on their site showing ten scenes from The Hobbit. You can magnify each scene by clicking on any area – scroll to the right for more scenes. This is flash animation so may not work on mobile/tablet devices but well worth a look.

Here is the full panorama – click to enlarge and then click again to zoom in:

8th July

1. Weta Workshop have released a special edition statue of Thorin Oakenshield with just 700 pieces made, 500 of which will be available to buy at Comic-Con. Click the image below to see the statue or visit Weta for more information.

3. There’s a new quote from Richard about Thorin Oakenshield on EW.com: ”There are elements of Tolkien’s description of Thorin that I’m trying to evolve,” says Armitage. ”I’m trying to make him more human and less cantankerous the entire journey.”

4. New artwork added to the site today inspired by the latest picture of Thorin Oakenshield as shown in the news below on 4th July.

5. There’s some interesting analysis of the twelve Hobbit pictures released from Entertainment Weekly on TheOneRing.net, including some complementary opinions of Richard as Thorin, for example:

“He looks like the confident leader that he is, and he looks like he knows how use that sword well!”

“Gandalf, Bilbo and Thorin are the center of this film. Let me go on record again and say that Richard Armitage is going to be a gigantic star when these two movies are over.”

“I’m still getting used to dwarves looking this cool. But, man does Richard Armitage own that role! He’s going to exemplify what it means to be a warrior dwarf.”

7th July

1. A reminder that Richard appears in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: In Divine Proportion today at 10.00am and 4.00pm on the ALIBI channel in the UK. See TV Listings on the left for other appearances. Here is the ILM gallery for screencaps.

3. A new Thorin Oakenshield wallpaper is on the site here courtesy of Bccmee. Click thumbnail to enlarge.

6th July

Peter Jackson has posted on his facebook page to announce that principal photography on The Hobbit has finished and to thank cast and crew and everyone else for their support. Billy Connolly stated previously that the wrap party would take place on 7th July.

5th July

1. The two new images of Thorin Oakenshield have been made into new puzzles and added to the Jigsaws page today. Scroll down to see the new jigsaws.

2. The UK release date for The Hobbit has been put back from 14 Dec 2012 to 26 Dec 2012 according to IMDB and FilmDates.co.uk. Also Empire magazine state the release will be on Boxing Day.

4th July

1. An article in the Coventry Telegraph from November 2004 has been unearthed by orpheus11 of the C19 forum, promoting Richard’s appearance as John Thornton in North and South. The article also describes how Richard won a scholarship aged 16. You can read it here on the Interviews page.

2. With thanks to Bccmee and Angelfish69 for their latest wallpapers featuring the new Thorin Oakenshield image here. Click thumbnails to enlarge.

3. The Entertainment Weekly 13 July 2012 tablet version has two new images, one new picture of Thorin and one of Dwalin, Balin and Bilbo which you can see if you click the thumbnails below. These have also been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery including another image of Bilbo in Mirkwood (#27) as it’s higher resolution.

2. Thanks to Joane for her latest drawing of Lucas North now on the Artwork page.

3. The picture of the day archive for June 2012 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

1st July

1. The announcement that was made on 29th June about Comic-Con attendees has now appeared on The Hobbit facebook page, Digital Spy and IMDB news pages amongst others. ComicBookResources has posted the Comic-Con schedule for Saturday 14 July, which shows that the Warner Bros panel featuring The Hobbit will take place between 2.30-5.00. Plus Peter Jackson has posted a question on his facebook page saying he’s looking forward to Comic-Con.

1. From TheOneRing.net: Warner Bros have finally confirmed there will be a Hobbit panel with cast members including Richard Armitage on Saturday 14th July in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. Also in attendance will be Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman and Sir Ian McKellen. Rumours that Richard would be there began with the recent article in Total Film magazine.

2. A donation to Barnardo’s was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of April 2012. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page and earning referral fees for charity. Further details here.

26th June

New poll on the site asking which actor you’d like to see in a film with Richard. The list comes from some of the British actors listed in the recent BBCA Anglophenia poll. Thanks for voting. Previous poll results are here.

25th June

1. Strike Back series 1 in Africa: Strike Back is currently showing on M-Net in South Africa and on DSTV in other African countries on Fridays at 21:30 Central African Time, repeated on Sundays at 22:15. This Friday they are showing the first part of the second storyline, i.e. the story set in Zimbabwe. Confusingly this is known as episode 2 on the DVD, but when it was first broadcast in the UK this was episode 3, since each story was broadcast in two installments. Episode 3 screencaps are here and a select few here in HD. Thanks to Kirsten for this info.

2. Thank you to Kathryn for sharing her artwork, a hand-cut silhouette of Richard now on the Artwork page. If you would like to leave any comments about any of the artwork on that page, scroll down to the end of the page to the comments section.

24th June

RAFrenzy has a first hand report from an audience member at Saturday night’s performance of Sir Ian McKellen’s show in Wellington, with an account of her chat with Richard and another video to watch. Thanks to NZfanofRA for sharing.

23rd June

The cast of The Hobbit joined Sir Ian McKellen on stage at the State Opera House, Wellington, NZ last night to raise money for Christchurch’s earthquake-damaged Isaac Theatre Royal. Lots of pictures have been posted by audience members in the last few hours, several of which include Richard. Peter Jackson was also in the audience.

2. All subsequent news headings on this site will be hyperlinked to make it easier to link to a news item on this site – click the date in blue ’16th June’ above to see the link in the address bar in your browser:

“With a co-starring role in last year’s Captain America: The First Avenger and his sizable role as Thorin Oakenshield in Peter Jackson’s two part Hobbit adaptation…on the horizon, recognition on this side of the pond is likely to change in a hurry.”

1. The Hobbit will finish filming in the first week of July. Billy Connolly, who plays Dain Ironfoot in the film has revealed that the wrap party will take place on 7th July.

2. The Hobbit panel at Comic-Con, San Diego: “Warner Bros. Pictures, which has reserved a three-hour block on Saturday, July 14, is expected to anchor its presentation with “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”…” A recent article in Total Film suggested that Richard Armitage may attend ComicCon and perhaps we can hope for another trailer too?

10th June

1. Thanks to Joane for sending the following cuttings from French TV guides about Strike Back series 1, which will be shown tonight at 20:50 and Spooks series 9 to be shown on Monday at 20:55 on Canal+. Click to enlarge.

3. Two new images of Lucas North have been added to the Spooks Promo gallery courtesy of the Canal+ site. Images series9-06 and series9-38 are new. Click ‘original image’ to see full size – the 2nd image is very large. Press F5 to refresh your screen if you cannot see the images.

4. Four new images of Guy of Gisborne are now in the Series 2 Promo gallery, with thanks to the farfarawaysite.com. Images ep8-1, ep9-1, ep9-2 (although he’s out of focus!) and ep9-6 are new. As above, click ‘original image’ to see full size and press F5 if necessary.

7th June

1. Robin Hood series 1 in Spain: the Boing channel are showing Robin Hood series 1 every Sunday at approximately 18:30 and repeating it on Mondays at 22:30. Thanks to Theresa.

2. A picture and video of Richard filming Spooks series 9 has appeared on jogroglog’s blog. Picture posted below with kind permission. Visit the blog to watch the video of Richard/Lucas North talking on the ‘phone outside the Freemason’s Hall in London. I think this is from episode 7?

Click to enlarge

3. Here’s a scan of the double page spread from Total Film magazine, Summer 2012 issue, as mentioned in the news 4th June below: ‘The New Faces of The Hobbit’. Click to enlarge.

1. An article in Total Film this month has a quote from Richard and suggests that he might attend Comic Con 2012 in San Diego. Thanks to Cumberbatchweb for the information – scan is above (news 7th June) and on The Hobbit career page. Comic Con takes place from 12 – 15 July, however it is already sold out. Comic Con website.

1. The picture of the day archive for May 2012 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

2. Thanks to Joane for two new excellent drawings of Guy of Gisborne and Richard Armitage, now on the Artwork page.

1st June

1. WETA UK, a new UK television PBS channel in the Washington DC, Maryland and Virgina area, will be showing Robin Hood series 1 at the weekend. Here’s the TV schedule for a list of dates/times. Thanks to Faboamanto on twitter.

2. Eight new puzzles have been added to the Jigsaws page, scroll down to see the new jigsaws.

BAFTA 2010 gallery additions: the first four images on this page are new and the following images are now larger – BAFTA2010-03, BAFTA2010-12, BAFTA2010-19. Many of the images in this gallery are very large – click ‘original image’ and then click again on the picture to see the full size. With thanks to the Russian RA site for the new additions.

Note – if you cannot see any of the new images, press F5 to refresh your screen.

30th May

1. The CanalPlus site has 3 ‘Making of’ videos and a trailer for Strike Back series 1, to promote the broadcast of this series on Sunday 10th June (see news 14th and 28th May). Also click the ‘Strike Back’ link at the top of that page to open their Strike Back page. Thanks to Joane.

2. Strike Back DVD releases in France: Strike Back series 1 on 26th June and Strike Back series 2 on 8th August. Thanks to Fred.

29th May

A donation to Shelter was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of March 2012. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page and earning referral fees for charity. Further details here.

28th May

1. On a recent visit to New Zealand, YA visited Hobbit locations at Hobbiton, Matamata and in and around Wellington. Here is her Hobbit Location report. Many thanks to YA for sharing.

2. Joane has sent a copy of a TV page promoting Strike Back series 1 and Spooks series 9, due to be shown in France on the Canal+ channel, as mentioned below on 14th May. Click the image below to enlarge.

Translation: MI-5. Arms dealing, terrorist threats, organized crime… the British spies are back to business. The famous section D, already seriously shaken by Ros’s death, faces new troubles when Lucas North reveals a secret past. A British series always at the top. Every Monday from 11/06/2012 at 20:55 Canal+

STRIKE BACK. A series had never immersed its audience as much in the heart of the action since “24”. How does “Strike Back” (“fight back” in French) work? One mission per episode. In season 1, John Porter, a special forces unit soldier on the sidelines since a disastrous operation in Iraq, gets the opportunity to make amends…and also to discover what really happened during the mission that damaged his reputation.

In season 2, also as enthralling, the agents Stonebridge and Marshall hunt/track down a Pakistani terrorist. A world where nobody can trust anyone, where the enemy is invisible, and where war is secretly at stake: welcome to “Strike Back”. Every Sunday from 10/06/2012, 20:55 Canal +

3. Thanks to Teena for sharing her Photoshop painting of John Thornton, now on the Artwork page.

5. Robin Hood series 2 in Australia: the UKTV channel will start showing Robin Hood series 2 on Wednesday 30th May at 5.05pm. Thanks to Pauline.

23rd May

1. Richard Armitage has been nominated in the Best Actor category for his role as John Porter in Strike Back: Project Dawn in the TV Choice Awards. He may have only appeared in episode one but it was enough to gain him a nomination, congratulations Richard. You can vote for this long list until Friday 15th June, the short list will be announced on Tuesday 3rd July. Vote here.

2. Movieclips.com have put all six of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit video blogs in one video on youtube. No new clips but now all in one place. Click the quality button in the bottom-right corner to view in HD.

3. Spooks season 7 in New York: PBS WLIW 21 New York are showing episode 1 of MI-5 season 7 at 9.00pm this evening. Thanks to Delores.

4. Digital Spy have listed Richard in their ‘Spooks stars: Where are they now?’ article posted today, to promote the fact that the UK Sony Entertainment channel have been showing Spooks from the first series on Wednesdays at 10.00pm. Click to the 2nd image to see Richard.

21st May

1. Strike Back series 1 and 2 in the UK: if you have Sky Anytime (also via Virgin TV) then all episodes of Strike Back starring Richard as John Porter are currently available. Thanks to Jen.

2. Miss Marple: Ordeal by Innocence in Hungary: the Story4 channel will show this episode on Sunday 27th May at 1.30pm. Programme information on our Ordeal by Innocence page. Thanks to Zsuzsanna.

1. New artwork of John Porter by Teena on the Artwork page and a new John Porter wallpaper based on the same image. Click the image to enlarge if you would like to save it to your desktop. Thanks T.

2. Spooks (MI-5) and Robin Hood in California:KCET have scheduled Spooks/MI-5 season 9 on Wednesdays at 10.00pm in the Los Angeles area – episode 4 will be shown on May 23rd, and KVCR have scheduled two episodes of Robin Hood season 3 on Tuesday nights at 8.00pm and Sundays at 10.30pm – episodes 5 and 6 will be shown on May 22nd. Thanks to Marie.

14th May

1. North and South in Hungary: part 2 of North and South will be shown on the Story5 channel at 20:30 on Sunday 20 May – part 1 started yesterday evening, apologies for the delay in putting up this news. Thanks to Zsuzsanna.

2. Richard on TV in France: Canal+ will start showing Strike Back series 1 on Sunday 10th June at 20:50 and they will also broadcast Spooks series 9 on Monday 11th June at 20:50. Further information here. Thanks to all those who emailed me about this.

11th May

A donation to The Salvation Army was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.com for the months of January and February 2012. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page and earning referral fees for charity. Further details here.

10th May

Two new additions to the Spooks Promo gallery with many thanks to Jonia for finding them. This image is new, press ‘original image’ in the corner to view the full size, and this image is larger and higher resolution. If you cannot see the images, press F5 to refresh your screen.

2. Some new high resolution images of Guy of Gisborne have been added to the Robin Hood Promo galleries. You may need to press F5 to refresh your screen when viewing the galleries as your computer may have saved the previous galleries in cache. Many thanks to farfarawaysite.com for the images and thanks to DarkJackal for the email.

1. Richard’s stunt double from Spooks series 9 has sent a photo of himself to my twitter account showing him dressed as Lucas North on location for the last episode of the series. He says he worked on other scenes for series 9, but had full involvement in the final episode. Thanks to Stephen Molloy for sharing this photo. Click to enlarge:

2.Spooks on PBS in Atlanta:PBA in Atlanta will start Season 7 of Spooks aka MI-5 this Monday evening at 9.00pm. Thanks to Gail.

3. New artwork on the site today, courtesy of Joane, Lady Prisca and Rossella:

The RSC production of Macbeth, filmed at the Roundhouse in London in 2001, is showing on the Sky Arts 2 channel in the UK on Sunday 6th May at 10.35pm. Antony Sher plays the title role and Richard plays Angus. Thanks to Marylin for the email.

2nd May

1. The new poll on the left-hand side asks which format you would like to see The Hobbit, assuming you had the choice to view any of the available formats. Peter Jackson’s response to critics of the 3D 48 frames-per-second format is here on the Hollywood Reporter site. Previous poll results are here.

2. Homes from Hell in Norway: this documentary series narrated by Richard, is being shown on the TVNorge channel in Norway every morning this week at 10.30am. Thanks to K.

3. The picture of the day archive for April 2012 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

1st May

Robin Hood on the BBC Entertainment channel: series 2 of Robin Hood will be shown on BBC Entertainment throughout Europe starting Saturday 5th May at 6.45pm. Check your local TV schedule for listings. Thanks to Zsuzsanna.

30th April

A donation to Childline was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the months of January and February 2012. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links on the home page and earning referral fees for charity. Further details here.

25th April

1. Teena has created four May 2012 calendars (Lucas, John Porter and two Monet) for you to print or set as your desktop background here – click the images to enlarge. Thanks T.

2. Following on from the news on 23rd April below about the 10 minute Hobbit preview clip there are lots of reactions on various websites today, but Middle Earth News has an excellent summary with links to some of the more interesting reviews. Avoid the italics if you don’t want to read spoilers about the footage.

2. Spooks series 7 on PBS Buffalo-Toronto: series 7 started last week, which meas that episode 2 is on Thursday 26th April at 10.00pm. Thanks to Susmita.

3. Miss Marple: Ordeal by Innocence in the Netherlands: this episode, co-starring Richard as Philip Durrant, will be shown on the 13th Street Universal digital channel at 2.00pm tomorrow. Thanks to crisvalvis.

23rd April

A special preview clip of The Hobbit will be shown at CinemaCon in Las Vegas this week, where cinema owners will get the chance to see up to ten minutes of the film in 3D at 48 frames per second. More details here. The Hobbit will be released worldwide on 14 December 2012.

18th April

Joane has drawn a fantastic picture of Thorin which she has sent to me this morning. It’s on the Artwork page and you may leave a comment at the bottom of the page if you wish. Thanks Joane!

16th April

1. Captain America: The First Avenger will be shown on the Sky Movies Premiere channel in the UK from Friday 20 April at 10.00am and then throughout the day. It will be repeated every day for a week and then at regular intervals.

2. Four more jigsaws have been added to the Jigsaws page. Scroll down to see the latest puzzles.

3. Strike Back in Poland: the HBO2 channel will show the second series of Strike Back on Friday 20 April at 23.00. Richard appears briefly as John Porter in the first episode. Thanks to Sylwia.

9th April

Spooks series 9 in Germany: the Fox HD channel will start broadcasting series 9 on Friday 13 April at 20:15. Thanks to Bee.

4th April

1. In an article on NextMovie.com, ‘Who Will Be the Breakout Star of ‘The Hobbit’?, Larry D Curtis of TheOneRing.net has listed the actors whose careers he believes will benefit most after the release of The Hobbit. “In terms of skyrocketing career moves, Armitage will be the ultimate winner. Thorin will be a more important part of this film than many realize and the Shakespearian tragedy elements, with his talent and good looks, make this a perfect situation for him”.

2. According to TheOneRing.net, a possible behind the scenes book about filming The Hobbit will be released on 6th November 2012 by Weta Workshop.

3. Thank you to Joane for her latest picture of John Thornton, which is now on the Artwork page.

2nd April

1. Moving On in New Zealand: this five part drama series will start today in New Zealand at 8.30pm on the digital channel Rialto. The series comprises five separate mini-plays and Richard appears as John Mulligan in the third episode called Drowning not Waving, which will be shown on Monday 16 April at 8.30pm and repeated at other times.

2. The picture of the day archive for March 2012 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

3. Five new watercolour paintings of Guy of Gisborne have been added to the Artwork page, with thanks to Françoise.

31st March

BBC Entertainment channel showing North and South today:North and South is showing in many European countries today at 14:40 and then the early hours of tomorrow morning at 01:45 on the BBC Entertainment channel. Here is the BBC Entertainment main page – choose your region to check the schedule. The second episode is on Tuesday. TV listings for Hungary here – thanks to Zsuzsanna for the email.

26th March

The second series of Fraud Squad (see 15 March news) has been moved to Thursday 5 April at 9.00pm, due to a clash with FA Cup football tomorrow night. Homes from Hell was due to be shown at 8pm, but that has been removed from the TV schedule. Thanks to Smitkit for the info.

15th March

According to the Radio Times, Richard has narrated the second series of Fraud Squad, which starts on Tuesday 27 March at 9pm on ITV1. First series information is here.

12th March

Read an interview with the father of the child actor who appeared in Captain America on Bccmee’s blog. Photos included.

11th March

1. A new poll is listed in the menu on the left for those die-hard North and South fans. The question asks how many times you have seen North and South all the way through, so this doesn’t include the number of times you’ve watched the train station scene on youtube! Thanks for voting. Previous poll results are here.

2. Thanks to Joane for her watercolour painting of Guy of Gisborne on the Artwork page.

10th March

1. Richard has narrated another documentary for the Eden channel called Trouble in Lemur Land: Phantoms of the Forest, which is on in the UK today at 2.00pm (3.00pm on the Eden Plus 1 channel) and again at 2.00am on Sunday, repeated again on Friday 23 March at 1.00pm, 5.00pm and 9.00pm. Thanks to Jen.

The documentary was first broadcast in the UK on 9 June 2011. The composer of the music for this documentary has uploaded a clip to youtube

2. George Gently showing in Southern California:KCET will be showing the pilot episode of George Gently, co-starring Richard as Ricky Deeming on Sunday 11th March at 9.00pm. Thanks to Carol.

3. A new Lucas North wallpaper has been added to this page, with thanks to Tannni.

4. Four new jigsaws showing Richard at various appearances have been added to the Jigsaws page. Scroll down to see the latest puzzles.

8th March

1. A donation to Barnardo’s was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.com for the month of December 2011. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links above and earning referral fees for charity.

2. Thanks to Joane for her latest drawing of Guy of Gisborne which is on the Artwork page.

7th March

1. Profiles in History are auctioning costumes and props from Captain America: The First Avenger. Click the online catalogue to view the items, including Heinz Kruger’s Zippo lighter detonator on p32 (thumbnails 34-35) and the costume Richard wore as Heinz Kruger on p35 (thumbnails 36-37). Thanks to MrsFitzwilliamD on twitter.

2. Strike Back series 1 in Australia: as mentioned below 29 Feb, Strike Back series 1 starts on UKTV on 4th March, but it will also be shown on ABC1 on Saturday 10 March at 9.30pm. Thanks to Mezz.

3. The Impressionists in Poland: you can see The Impressionists again on VIASAT History on Saturday 10 March at 4pm. Other times and TV schedule including showings of Spooks as mentioned previously here. Thanks to Sylwia.

4. Four new Guy of Gisborne jigsaws added to the Jigsaws page. Scroll down to see the latest puzzles.

6th March

1. Amazon UK have a special section for costume drama DVDs, with John Thornton taking centre stage in their banner. North and South is currently only £3.97 and this link will earn referral fees for charity if you decide to order (does anyone NOT own this DVD?). Thanks to CDoart for the email.

2. In an article in the Sunday Times on 4 March, the fortunes and prospects of British actors in the film industry are discussed with two mentions of Richard at the end of page 2. Click the images below to enlarge. With thanks to Orpheus.

3rd March

Expedition Tiger, narrated by Richard Armitage, was recently shown in Australia (see news 5 Feb) and has now been released on DVD in Australia. Thanks to Chrissie for this info. This documentary was known as Lost Land of the Tiger when it was broadcast in the UK.

2nd March

1. The picture of the day archive for February 2012 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

2. Spooks series 9 in Poland: BBC Entertainment Poland will show series 9 of Spooks (“Tajniacy”) on Sunday 4 March at 22:00. Thanks to Ania.

1st March

Click here to watch Peter Jackson’s 6th video blog, showing location shooting of The Hobbit with some wonderful scenery and a few glimpses of Richard as Thorin.

Screencaps of Richard as Thorin Oakenshield are in the 6th Production Video gallery. One or two of those pictures may actually be Richard’s double but it’s too difficult to tell!

2. Richard on Netflix in USA: Spooks (MI-5) series 1-10 are all available on Netflix instant streaming. Thanks to Freya.

3. A donation to Shelter was made today from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk for the month of December 2011. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links above and earning referral fees.

25th February

1. Please vote in the latest poll in the menu on the left-hand side of the page asking who is your least favourite character. John Thornton, Guy of Gisborne and Lucas North are usually firm favourites so they are omitted from the poll (although there is an ‘other’ option) and Richard’s less prominent roles are listed instead. Thanks for voting! Previous results are here.

2. Thank you to Jojemo for her excellent drawing of Richard, which has been added to the Artwork page.

2. Two new sound files added to the Sounds page – the North and South extract read by Richard (sadly he did not read the whole novel!) and a clip of John Porter as requested in the Comments section on that page. You can download all the sound files by clicking on the link at the top of that page.

3. A reminder that there are less than 24 hours to go in the quilt auction on ebay to raise money for Project Linus and the total has already gone over £500! Here’s the link and thank you to all those who have supported this cause.

Three new Robin Hood series 1 promotional pictures added to the site today: ep5-4, ep7-2 and ep10-3. The RH Promo gallery has been split into three to make it easier to find pictures – each picture labelled according to the episode that it is from. Here is the main Robin Hood gallery showing the three promotional picture galleries.

15th February

1. Some new artwork added today with thanks to Joane, Karima, LadyPrisca and JasRangoon.

3. The second donation to one of the Just Giving charities listed above was made today. This payment comes from referral fees accrued from Amazon.com since RAnet became an Associate up to 30 November. Thank you very much for using the Amazon links above and earning referral fees.

9th February

1. Spooks series 8 in Hungary: series 8 starts tonight at 11.45pm on the Story4 channel. Thanks to Anita.

2. Strike Back series 1 in Germany: RTL are showing series 1 starting 26 February at 22:45. The BBC Germany Strike Back mini-site has more information. BBC Germany also has a mini-site for Robin Hood, which starts on 15 February on SuperRTL as stated previously. Both mini-sites have pictures and wallpapers from the series. Thanks to CDoart.

3. Two new Guy of Gisborne wallpapers have been created from the new promotional images (see news 7th Feb), with many thanks to Angelfish and Bccmee.

4. Spooks series 8 in Australia: UKTV are showing series 8 this week. Here’s the website to check the times, which can vary from day to day. Thanks to Pauline.

8th February

1. A new image from the Recognise magazine photoshoot has appeared on DanielHiggins.net. There is still no word as to whether this magazine will be published or whether the interview will surface I’m afraid.

2. The first donation to one of the Just Giving charities listed above was made today. This payment comes from referral fees accrued from Amazon.co.uk since RAnet became an Associate up to 30 November. Payments are sent from Amazon on a monthly basis (if the amount earned is above Amazon’s minimum requirement) and the referral fees from Amazon US are on their way – the cheque takes a bit longer to clear! Thank you very much for using the Amazon links above and earning commission.

7th February

1. A UK based children’s charity Project Linus has been offered a quilt featuring Richard Armitage to auction off and raise funds for their charity. Richard suggested the charity to the person who has generously donated their time and skill in creating the quilt and the charity have asked this website to help with the promotion of the potential auction. See this page for further information and details of how to register your interest. Thank you.

2. The UK sci-fi magazine SFX has a 5 page article about the Hobbit called ’50 things you need to know about The Hobbit’. The only mention of Richard is as follows: “You may know Mr Armitage from Spooks or Robin Hood, but here he’s the leader of the ragtag band of Dwarves determined to win back his lands from the dragon who chased him out of them. He’s an honourable Dwarf who is the real hero of this story if you’re not that into Hobbits.” Images from the article are available in high resolution in the Hobbit Stills gallery.

Click images to enlarge:

3. Robin Hood series 1 in Germany: As stated on 6th January below, Super RTL will start showing series 1 on Wednesday 15 February at 21:10. They have setup a website with programme information and an extensive gallery. There are four previously unseen high resolution pictures of Guy of Gisborne which I have uploaded to the Robin Hood Promo gallery – images series1-49, series1-50, series1-51 and series1-52 are the new images. Click ‘original image’ to see the full size. (Press F5 to refresh your screen if you cannot see the new pictures).

6th February

1. The February issue of the French movie magazine L’écran Fantastique has a Hobbit article with pictures of Richard as Thorin and other images from the Hobbit trailer. No new information but thanks to Isabelle for sharing this article with us all. Click images to enlarge:

2. Thanks to Joane for her drawing of John Thornton, which is on the Artwork page.

5th February

1. Lost Land of the Tiger in Australia: ABC1 showed episode 1 of this documentary, under the different title ‘Expedition Tiger’ at 6.05pm. It should be available on ABC i-view soon. The next two episodes will be shown on Sundays in the next two weeks – further information of each episode are on this website here. Thanks to Heather.

2. Spooks series 7 in Israel: channel 23 will start showing series 7 tonight at 23:00. Thanks to Naama.

2nd February

The picture of the day archive for January 2012 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

31st January

1. Spooks series 7 in Germany: Fox channel started showing series 7 last night, and episode 2 will be shown a few times this week – here is the TV schedule. Thanks to Bee. ZDFneo are also showing series 7 at the moment, see news 4th January for more information.

2. Spooks series 9 in Ireland:RTE1 are showing series 9 at 00.50am on Wednesdays – episode 3 airs tonight/tomorrow morning. Thanks to Jean.

30th January

1. David Stephenson of The Express has uploaded audio interviews with Richard to youtube one of which was previously only available to buy. The Strike Back interview is on the Strike Back downloads page with the corresponding print article that appeared in May 2010. The Spooks interview (pre-series 9) was previously only available to buy, but is now on youtube via the link above or here on the Spooks 9 interviews and clips page – the print interview that David wrote as a result of that interview appeared in the Sunday Express in September 2010 and is here. Thanks to Bccmee for the youtube link.

2. Richard on TV in Hungary: HBO and HBO2 are showing the second series of Strike Back from tomorrow (Richard appears brieflly in episode 1 only) and The Impressionists will be shown 5th February. More details of Richard’s appearances on TV in Hungary are here. Also according to the programme information on this link the first episode of Spooks series 7 starts tonight. Thanks to Anita.

3. The new poll on the left-hand side asks which is your favourite photoshoot from the choices given – the poll doesn’t give me enough space to list all of them I’m afraid! All of the photoshoots/photographers named feature in the Promotional Pics gallery and are listed by year, but here is a list to clarify:

an interview from the BBC website has been added to the Spooks series 7 clips page (scroll down to the last clip) – screencaps are here. The quality isn’t great I’m afraid as it was downloaded from the BBC website (no longer available on the BBC).

some videos with a large file size are being moved to YouTube over the next few days rather than using file sharing sites(!) My YouTube channel is here or they will (soon) appear on Richard’s YouTube page.

18th January

Three new pictures have surfaced on the internet of John Porter from Strike Back series 2 – these are images 7, 8 and 9 in the Strike Back 2 Promo gallery, click ‘original image’ to enlarge. With thanks to the RA Russian site for sourcing image 8 and 9 and Bccmee for finding larger versions and also finding image 7.

17th January

1. There are three new North and South location pages added today, making four in total, which can be accessed from the North and South Locations page or from the main menu on the left. With thanks to Smithylass for the Edinburgh photographs and the admin of the Richard Armitage Acemarsupial site, which is no longer online.

2. Trud has given permission to post 2008 Spooks filming pictures in the Candids gallery. These were taken on 18 March 2008 when Richard was filming Spooks series 7 and were originally shared on the C19 forum. Thank you Trud!

1. MTV.com have interviewed Richard and named him One to Watch in 2012. He states that filming block 3 will start end of January and continue to end of July, with more filming to take place in 2013. Richard gives us plenty of detail about his experience of playing Thorin Oakenshield: “It’s really weird now because I can’t play the character when I haven’t gotten everything on. It’s very hard to rehearse when you’re not in costume, when you haven’t gotten the prosthetics on, but I look in the mirror when it’s all finished and I don’t see it. I can’t see where it starts and where it ends. I just see the character. I’ve never had that before. It’s such a unique experience.”

A great interview after such a long hiatus – enjoy!

NB: the video clip on the interview page is just The Hobbit trailer – it’s blocked to those outside the US for some reason, but you’re not missing anything new.

2. Larry D Curtis of TheOneRing.net has written an article about the character of Thorin Oakenshield for Movie.com, which makes interesting reading.

“the dwarf who is most likely to become a household name is the more fully titled Thorin Oakenshield and we think not only will we have an unforgettable character…but also the actor Richard Armitage will become a household name. While there are many who know and love the English actor, that day and the films, will change his career forever.”

10th January

1. Strike Back series 1 in UAE:series 1 will be shown on Wednesday 11 January on OSN First HD, OSN First and OSN First +2. More details at The National.

2. Richard has read poetry for three BBC radio programmes, which you will find via the Career page, but now also added to a Poetry Readings page to make them easier to find and listen to. This is also listed under the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side.

3. New poll on the left-hand side for a bit of fun. Thanks to followers on twitter for the suggestions. Previous poll results are here.

6th January

1. Robin Hood series 3 in Brazil: GlobosatHD will start showing series 3 on Saturday 7 January at 23:00 and repeat the episode on Monday 9 January at 13:00. Thanks to Thais.

2. Strike Back series 1 in Germany: RTL Crime are showing series 1 again on Monday 16 January at 22:30. Full details here although they only have listings for the Iraq and the Zimbabwe storylines at this stage. Thanks to Bee.

3. GizTheGunslinger has created a wonderful drawing of a Spooks promotional image, which you will find on the Artwork page. Comments can be left at the bottom of the page if you wish.

5. Robin Hood in Germany:Super RTL will start showing series 1 on Wednesday 15 February at 21:10. Thanks to Dunja.

6. Four new jigsaws from the Hobbit trailer have been added to the Jigsaws page. New jigsaws are at the end of the page.

4th January

1. Strike Back series 1 in France:Canal+ will be showing Strike Back series 1 from Sunday 22 January at 20:55. Thanks to Joane.

2. Spooks series 7 in Germany: as mentioned on 27 December below, ZDFneo started showing Spooks series 7 on Mondays at 10.40pm. Here’s the ZDFneo Spooks page. Click on Series 7 information for details of each episode. Thanks to Jessie for the link.

4. Thanks to Lady Prisca for her latest drawing of Dr Track from The Golden Hour now on the Artwork page.

5. Robin Hood series 3 in Russia: the TV3 channel starts showing series 3 today at 03:30. The series will run on Mondays to Thursdays and more info and photos are on this page. Thanks to Svetlana.

3rd January

Many thanks to MsG for sharing the photograph below of the ensemble of 42nd Street in Blackpool circa 1991. The photograph comes from MsG’s friend who is also in the photograph and confirms that Richard was part of the ensemble. There is some debate about whether Richard is at the back, the first guy in dark trousers at the end of the line of ladies, or on the step of the bus, face partially obscured. I cannot confirm either so have fun speculating! Click to enlarge.

2nd January

1. The picture of the day archive for December 2011 has been added to the Multimedia menu on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

3. Robin Hood series 1 in Italy: the Premium Mediaset Joy channel is showing Robin Hood series 1 every Saturday at 1.30pm. The next episode on Saturday 7 January is ‘Brothers in Arms’ (‘Promessa Sposa’). Thanks to LadyCassia.

1st January

1. Spooks (MI-5) series 7 in France: the first two episodes were shown this afternoon on the ‘France Ô’ channel and episodes 5 and 6 will be shown on Wednesday at 20:35. They don’t seem to be showing episodes 3 and 4 at the moment, here’s the schedule for each episode. Thanks to Joane.

2. Spooks (MI-5) series 7 in Houston: series 7 starts in Houston, Texas, on PBS KUHT on Thursday 5 January at 21:00 CST. Thanks to Patricia.